China and Taliban link warming ahead of US withdrawal

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Chinese Foreign Ministers met with a high-ranking Taliban delegation on Wednesday as relations between them warmed prior to the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan.

Photos posted on the ministry’s website show that Wang Yi posed in Tianjin with Tullivan’s senior leader, Mura Abdul Gani Baradar, and his delegation, and then sat down and talked. There is. The very prominent friendliness show looked like a diplomatic mission when Taliban terrorists crave legitimacy.

The agenda of the meeting was not announced, but the Chinese Communist Party administration is interested in encouraging the Taliban to engage in peace talks, or at least reduce the level of violence in seizing territory from Afghan government forces.

China and Afghanistan share the high borders of the distant Wahan Corridor, and the Chinese administration has long been concerned about the potential for Islamic militants to spread to the previously unstable Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. China has also signed deals on oil, gas and copper mining in Afghanistan, but they have been dormant for a long time.

“The Taliban are the central military and political forces in Afghanistan and are expected to play an important role in the process of peace, reconciliation and reconstruction,” Wang said.

The heads of the Taliban Religious Council and the Propaganda Commission also participated in the trip.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan by August 31 is seen as a boon to Washington’s main strategic competitor, the Chinese administration.

If the Taliban defeats the U.S.-backed central government, the Chinese administration will gain a strategic corridor and put more pressure on its common rival, the Taliban and its longtime ally Pakistan. May be possible.

The visit to Baladar will take place shortly after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and Intelligence Director visits China.

Pakistan is considered the key to peace in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s leadership is headquartered in Pakistan, and Islamabad is using its now-declining influence to pressure the Taliban to talk about peace.

The Tianjin conference may be considered a snub in the United States, but Washington has issued a statement calling on the Taliban to conclude a peace agreement in talks with China and Russia.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a Washington dignitary in negotiations aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan, also briefly visited Pakistan earlier this month as Islamabad’s relationship with Kabul reached new lows. did.

It cultivated the recognition that the United States, including China, is engaged in enhanced efforts to reach a peace agreement prior to the August 31 deadline.

After US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met Wang in Tianjin on Monday, she and the State Department included Afghanistan on the list of “fields of global interest” in which the United States and China can work together.

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