Dr Mehmood-ul-Hassan Khan
MOST recently, China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral strategic dialogue has held at Vice Foreign Minister level which thoroughly discussed different issues pertaining to peace and harmony in Afghanistan. China meaningful engagement with different stakeholders of Afghanistan are a balancing act to mitigate spill over repercussions unfortunately associated with Afghanistan. China has now become strategic partner to Afghanistan which has multiplier effects of socio-economic prosperity, geopolitical stability and geostrategic sustainability in the region which has been easy prey to onslaught of US imperialism and do more mantra for so many years in the past. The 3rd round China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Vice Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue was held via video link. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui, Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Mirwais Nab and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood co-chaired the dialogue. According to the joint declaration issued by Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, the three countries reached broader consensus after holding in-depth discussions and reached consensus on cooperation against COVID-19, the Afghan peace and reconciliation process, and trilateral cooperation.
All the participating sides attached great importance to the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral cooperation and stressed the need to robustly implement the outcome of the 3rd China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue. Moreover, the countries reiterated their commitment to strengthening communication and coordination and enhancing mutual trust and cooperation under the trilateral cooperation mechanism. During the most recently held strategic dialogue the three sides agreed to further the cooperation against COVID-19 and called on the international community to jointly prevent prejudice and humiliation, support the World Health Organization’s leading role in coordinating global COVID-19 response, promote international cooperation on joint prevention and control, and safeguard public health security in the region and beyond. China and Pakistan being strategic allies appreciated the sincere efforts by the Afghanistan Government and all main stakeholders in expediting the prisoners swap to pave the way for the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations and called for violence reduction and humanitarian ceasefire. China and Pakistan will enhance cooperation with the Afghan Government in support of the “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned” peace reconciliation process, the launch of intra-Afghan negotiations at an early date, the preservation of the gains since 2001 and looked forward to the early restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan.
During the strategic dialogue, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to further strengthen dialogue and jointly work for continuous improvement of bilateral relations through having effective implementation of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS). On its part, China will continue to play a constructive role in improving Afghanistan-Pakistan relations. Afghan refugees have been a serious issue for all the regional countries for which the three sides agreed that the return of Afghan refugees ought to be part of peace and reconciliation process and underlined the role of international community for a time-bound and well-resourced roadmap for the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland with dignity and honour. The three sides urged systematic, liable and conditions-based withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan to avoid potential terrorist resurgence. The three sides agreed to continue to strengthen counter-terrorism and security cooperation, combat the “East Turkestan Islamic Movement”, and all other terrorist forces and networks posing threat to our common security.
The three sides expressed readiness to carry out trilateral practical cooperation in flexible manners, and keep exploring new fields of cooperation, with a view to accumulating outcomes for the 4th China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue. Taliban and US peace deal has now enabled US and allied forces to withdraw from Afghanistan by July 2021. The US military has pulled out several thousand personnel from Afghanistan since signing the pact, bringing the troop level to around 8,600. Washington, however, has stated that the drawdown of remaining troops will be “conditions-based,” and linked to whether the Taliban lives up to its counterterrorism pledges. The proposed intra-Afghan dialogue was originally scheduled for March, but controversies plaguing the prisoner exchange and increased Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces have been blamed for the delay. In the past Beijing was credited with establishing the trilateral dialogue process to help Kabul and Islamabad ease bilateral tension and enhance economic as well as security cooperation.? The Trump administration, however, hailed Pakistan for facilitating Washington’s talks with the Taliban and the eventual peace-building pact between the two adversaries. Being a prominent regional expert, I suggest constant strategic dialogue among all the stakeholders and regional countries to brighten the prospects for state building and socio-economic recovery and strengthening trans-regional interconnectedness between Central and South Asia. Moreover, peaceful inter-Afghan negotiations should be fastened and decision of any future political system and model of governance left to its people.
China has now a larger vision of its engagement with Afghanistan, which is also driven by strong geo-economic and geopolitical vested interests. Afghanistan’s huge reserves of copper and rare earth including lithium along with sustainable security equation are major drivers of China’s long-term engagement with Afghanistan. Major Chinese investors in various sectors in Afghanistan especially, mining and looks to enhance trade and commerce along the Pak-Afghan border. CPEC and Gwadar Port give Afghanistan easier access to the rest of the world, despite the availability of Iranian Chabahar port as an alternative. Afghanistan is the gate-way to connect with Central Asian States which urgently requires a regional consensus to sort out burning issues to achieve peace and harmony.
China has huge investment, joint ventures, energy and food security arrangements and mega infrastructure projects in all the CIS especially within the framework of BRI, thus political stability, peace and harmony in Afghanistan would open up unlimited opportunities for China and, of course, Pakistan to further enhance trade with these countries in the days to come. All the regional countries have been under rigorous security threat from US presence in the region which has been indulged to pursue its China’s containment policy, surveillance to Iranian ballistic missiles system & nuclear program and security problems for Pakistan etc. Thus recently China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral strategic dialogue is the only way forward to bring peace in Afghanistan, neutralization of military presence of foreign troops, marginalization of mushroom growth and infiltration of terrorist sanctuaries.
—The writer is Director, Geopolitics/Economics Member Board of Experts, CGSS.