According to Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen, China has played a positive role in fostering peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and is welcome to contribute to the country’s reconstruction.
This was the Taliban spokesman’s first contact with Chinese media since the Taliban seized control of Kabul earlier this week.
“China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity – I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Shaheen told CGTN television, in an interview late on Thursday.
Last month, at a meeting in Tianjin with a Taliban group, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed optimism that Afghanistan will embrace a more moderate approach.
In dealing with the Taliban, an increasingly powerful China may be able to take advantage of the fact that it has never fought in Afghanistan before, unlike Russia and the United States.
Earlier in the day, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said that Beijing maintains contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban and other parties while fully respecting Afghanistan’s sovereignty and the desire of all parties.
China encourages and hopes that the Afghan Taliban can follow through on their positive statements, unite with all parties and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, establish a broad-based, inclusive political framework that fits the national conditions and wins public support through dialogue and consultation as soon as possible, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.
Hua had stated that, since nothing remains the same, we should use a holistic, linked, progressive dialectical approach to understanding and dealing with issues, looking at both the past and the present. We need to pay attention not just to what they say, but also to what they do.
“If we do not keep pace with the times, but stick to a fixed mindset and ignore the development of the situation, we will never reach a conclusion that is in line with reality,” Hua had said.
Meanwhile, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged for improved cooperation between Pakistan and China on the Afghan problem in order to promote a peaceful transfer of power in the country.
According to a press release issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi made these remarks during a phone conversation with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, “as responsible neighbours to Afghanistan, China and Pakistan need to strengthen communication and coordination to support a stable transition in the country and play constructive roles in maintaining regional peace and stability.”
According to Wang Yi, the two nations should encourage all Afghan parties to deepen their connections and create a new broad-based and inclusive political system that is tailored to the country’s unique circumstances.
“China and Pakistan should also support Afghanistan in its fight against terrorism, to prevent the country from becoming a hotbed for terrorism again, he had added.
He said that the Chinese and Pakistani embassies in Afghanistan are operational, and that the two countries should engage with the Taliban to guarantee the safety of Chinese and Pakistani troops and institutions in Afghanistan.
He said that the two countries should use their unique position as neighbours to encourage orderly international collaboration including Afghanistan and to gradually bring the situation in Afghanistan into a virtuous circle.
