Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on June 24 on a two-day visit for talks to push for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.

Both sides will discuss how to revive the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.

The QCG has been almost dysfunctional since the American drone killed Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in May last year. Mansour was killed just three days after the last meeting of the QCG was held in Islamabad on May 18.

Wang will arrive in Islamabad after his visit to Kabul where he will discuss the same issues with the Afghan leaders. Afghan sources say the Chinese foreign minister would hold official talks with his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani and was likely to call on President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah.

The Chinese FM will hold meetings in Islamabad on June 25, a source told Daily Times.

Wang will visit Kabul and Islamabad nearly two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on June 9.

Some sources say that China had helped in the Sharif-Ghani meeting at a time relations between the two countries are at the lowest ebb. Beijing is also planning to host a trilateral summit of Afghanistan, Pakistan and China.

In Astana, the prime minister and the Afghan leader agreed to use the QCG to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan that could be seen an important development in view of the key role the grouping can play in the peace process.

Pakistan, which believes the QCG is an effective forum, had been effectively involved in the process since it was launched in Islamabad in December 2015 on the sideline of the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process.

China and Pakistan had been working closely under the QCG; however, it is now up to the US and Afghanistan how to use this forum to negotiate the settlement. Another regional peace initiative led by Russian was also an important forum to find out ways to promote political process; however, the US seemed to be perturbed over Moscow’s active diplomacy and refused to take part in the April meeting. All key regional players had taken part in the meeting.

Reports suggest that the US is likely to deploy around 4,000 additional troops in Afghanistan – a sign that the US still wanted to go for the military option. The US currently has 8,400 troops in the country, who are part of nearly 15,000 foreign forces.

Pakistan and other regional countries are advocating for political process as the military option has not worked over the past 16 years and the US monitors and almost all international reports admit that the Taliban now control more areas. However, deployment of more troops could be considered a US move to opt for military offensive. Things will be cleared after the Trump administration unveils its eagerly awaited review on Afghanistan.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis said this month that the US was “not winning in Afghanistan right now and we will correct this as soon as possible”.

Published in Daily Times, June 22nd, 2017.