Daily Times

As a neighbour to Afghanistan, China favours a sustainable peace in the country it shares a narrow border with. China wishes that crime and violence do not spill over from Afghanistan into its Muslim majority Xinjiang Region. Since 2001, during the war on terror in Afghanistan, China has not taken any side therein. It has maintained good relations with all elected governments of Afghanistan; has provided aid to the Afghan government and also invested there to develop deposits of copper and other minerals.

In fact, China is Afghanistan’s biggest foreign investor. It appears keen to extend the Belt and Road Initiative there as a part of its philosophy of shared development and destinies in its neighbourhood. Hence, China wants an end to the war in Afghanistan and supports a long-term peace there, which could pave the way for its further investments.

Apart from China’s good relations with the Afghan governments, China has also established contacts with the Taliban, major stakeholders in Afghanistan. By seeing the Taliban as more moderate and accommodating as well as interested in Afghanistan’s security and economic development, China started establishing better working relations with them.

As published by the TRT World on August 2, 2019, being keen to bring peace in Afghanistan, China was a part of the Kabul Process convened by President Ghani in 2017. It had sent its diplomats to attend talks with the Taliban and other Afghan politicians in Moscow in 2018. In June 2019, China announced that it had received a Taliban delegation led by their deputy, Mullah Baradar. China also participated in the trilateral Afghan peace talks with the US.

Spoilers of peace are quite actively disrupting the upcoming intra-Afghan peace process

As commented by the above-mentioned TRT, China was well-placed to act as a mediator in intra-Afghanistan. It had decent relations with both sides in the conflict and was likely to have more leverage to positively influence the talks as it has substantial economic incentives to offer Afghanistan. Moreover, the Taliban also want good relations with China to get further investments and technology in Afghanistan. According to Rahimullah Yusufzai, economic issues were again discussed at the group’s recent visit to China.

As stated by The Diplomat in its March 2020 edition, China pledged its support for the US-Taliban peace agreement in Afghanistan and called for the “orderly and responsible” withdrawal of foreign troops to avoid a power vacuum and possible terrorist resurgence. Foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said the reconciliation process should be “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.” Zhao further said, “China was willing to continue to be a supporter, mediator and facilitator of the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.”

However, the recent events in Afghanistan indicate that the spoilers of peace are quite actively disrupting the upcoming intra-Afghan peace process wherein the Taliban are a major stakeholder. Such forces want instability to perpetuate in Afghanistan and are silently doing this by misleading the Afghan government and the NDS, which has blamed the Taliban for the recent violence in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the Afghan Daesh has accepted the responsibility for the violence, whereas the Taliban are holding the ceasefire.

In this context, the Afghan government’s policy to delay the release of the Taliban prisoners and the intra-Afghan dialogue are indicators of hidden but disturbing forces. These forces are active in derailing the peace talks as they want a totally monopolistic influence and control to prevail in Afghanistan; to diminish China and Pakistan’s increasing role in the peace-building and development in Afghanistan. And these forces also do not want the Taliban to share power, as part of a likely peace deal, which could be concluded as a consequence of the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.

The negative role is being played by the forces, which are hostile to peace, despite the fact that all major powers and Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries have welcomed the signing of the US-Taliban peace deal. They are willing to support the intra-Afghan dialogue, including the Taliban. These negative players are not willing to accept that even the Afghans also want an intra-Afghan dialogue to be held soon to end the war and bring sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

These players are also not realising that due to the Afghan government’s internal political fighting, it will lose peoples’ support if it fails to hold a serious dialogue with the Taliban to bring a durable peace. The hostile forces have also failed to appreciate that the people of Afghanistan value the positive role played by China and Pakistan during the US-Taliban peace talks and their policies to support and facilitate an intra-Afghan dialogue to make it a success story. And that the Chinese development model through engagement and connectivity would work best for the development in Afghanistan.

In view of the above discussion, it is advisable that the forces, inimical to peace in Afghanistan, should understand the evolving regional scenario, and give up their negative role in favour of building peace and prosperity in Afghanistan rather than making fruitless efforts to disrupt the peace process.

The writer is a former Consultant and Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), and Senior Research Fellow of Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad