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What's the article about?
- It talks about China's official position on the Taliban led Afganistan.
Relevance:
- GS2: India and its Neighborhood- Relations; Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests; Prelims
Context:
- Recently, China released a position paper on its policy in Afghanistan at the Samarkand Foreign Ministers’ (China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) meeting on Afghanistan.
- This position paper offers details on two fronts:
- China’s official policy towards crisis-ridden Afghanistan and
- China’s recent efforts to refashion how it is viewed internationally in order to get strong allies against the USA.
Analysis:
- Three Respects and Three Nevers:
- China respects the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and the ‘independent choice’, religious sentiments and national customs of the Afghan people.
- These principles are put in opposition to the policies followed by the West which, according to Beijing, are informed more by geopolitics and their vested interests.
- Deriding the U.S. for imposing unilateral sanctions and illegally freezing Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, China calls for a reversal of these actions. In response to Washington’s failure to introspect, Beijing commits to help Afghanistan move towards a more sustainable form of economy.
- Using groupings without the U.S., its allies:
- Urging the international community to view the Afghan issue in a ‘comprehensive, balanced and objective manner’, China advocates using alternative regional groupings which do not include the U.S. and its allies, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Moscow Format Dialogue, the Foreign Ministers’ group which just met, and the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, for discussing the Afghan issue.
- This will help Beijing in promoting an alternative model as opposed to the battered approach of the West, allowing it to focus more on its priorities and form a consensus among Afghanistan’s neighbours.
- China’s own interests in the stable Afghanistan:
- Stability in Afghanistan is also important for Beijing to attain its own security and economic interests in the country and to present a counter to U.S. hegemony, both politically and financially.
- For China, the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and its potential to harm Chinese interests and personnel are very real.
- Calling for a bilateral and multilateral approach to respond to the ‘Three Forces’ of terrorism, extremism and separatism, China urges the Taliban, regional countries and the international community to crack down on terror groups, specifically the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and help Afghanistan in augmenting its counterterrorism capabilities.
- The question of refugees and narcotics and their cross-border trafficking are also highlighted. Owing to its strategic location, Afghanistan is also economically very important for China: for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and due to the presence of vast mineral resources.
Way Forward:
- While the Taliban have welcomed the paper and China’s ‘long-term political support’ to the country, China’s success in Afghanistan will remain contingent on what it could offer to the Taliban.
- For India, China’s continued engagement with Russia and Iran, along with the Central Asian countries will be consequential in understanding how their policies will shape and what it would mean for India’s interests in Afghanistan.
