China, Russia approach Taliban extremists for formal relations with Afghan regime

China and Russia indicated their willingness to establish relations with the Taliban on Monday, in the wake of their entry into Kabul and the disintegration of the government.

The Asian giant, which shares 76 kilometers of border with Afghanistan, said Monday it wants to maintain “friendly relations” with the Islamic regime. China “respects the right of the Afghan people to decide their own destiny and future and wishes to continue to maintain friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan,” Chinese diplomacy spokeswoman Hua told reporters. Chunying.

The Chinese regime has long feared that Afghanistan will become an anchor for separatists from the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. But a high-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants.

In return, China has offered economic support and investments for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Beijing in 2016 added the country to its major infrastructure project of “New Silk Roads”. But, in the absence of security, Chinese investments have been modest: $ 4.4 million in 2020, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

The Chinese embassy in Kabul continues to operate, the spokeswoman said on Monday, although Beijing began to evacuate Chinese citizens from the country months ago amid the deteriorating security situation.

Russia defines its position

Moscow indicated that Its ambassador to Afghanistan will meet with the Taliban in Kabul on Tuesday and will decide whether or not to recognize the new government based on its conduct..

Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov told Russian media from Kabul that the Taliban have already established “law and order”, have even kept girls’ schools open and are monitoring the Russian embassy.

“Our ambassador is in contact with the leadership of the Taliban, he will meet tomorrow with the security coordinator of the Taliban,” Foreign Ministry official Zamir Kabulov said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday. He said talks between Ambassador Zhirnov and the Taliban would focus on how the group plans to ensure the security of the Russian embassy in the Afghan capital.

When the Taliban completed their military takeover of Afghanistan on Sunday, Kabulov said Russia had no plans to evacuate his embassy, ​​although on Monday he said “part” of his staff would be “evacuated”.

Kabulov also said that Moscow would decide on recognition of the new Taliban government on the basis of “the conduct of the new authorities”. “We will take a close look at the responsibility with which they rule the country in the near future. And based on the results, the Russian leadership will draw the necessary conclusionsKabulov said.

In an interview from Kabul with the public broadcaster Rossiya 24, Ambassador Zhirnov said the Taliban had started to “settle” in Kabul and restored “public order”. “The Taliban are already guarding our embassy,” he said. “They reaffirmed once again that no hair will fall from the heads of Russian diplomats.”

Zhirnov said that Russia wants “Afghanistan to be civilized, that there is no terrorism, that there are no drugs and that Afghanistan has good relations with all countries in the world”. He said the Taliban promised all of this and that Moscow “hopes” that the promises will be “kept”.

Added that a first positive sign was that “girls’ schools continued to operate” in Kabul.

In the 1980s, Moscow waged a disastrous decade-long war in Afghanistan that killed up to two million Afghans, forced seven million more from their homes, and killed more than 14,000 Soviet soldiers. Anti-Soviet Mujahedin fighters helped found the Taliban in the early 1990s.

Russia will participate in an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan scheduled for Tuesday. In recent years, the Kremlin has reached out to the Taliban and received their representatives in Moscow on several occasions, most recently last month. Moscow is very vigilant about the possibility of instability spreading to neighboring ex-Soviet Central Asia, where Russia maintains military bases.

(With information from AFP)

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