Proactive approach to Taliban helps safeguard security in northwest China: envoy

China's enhanced "proactive position" in Afghanistan over the past decade has helped to safeguard security in the northwestern Chinese region that borders its troubled neighbour, according to Beijing's special envoy for Afghan affairs.

Yue Xiaoyong said China had "accurately grasped" the issue's general trend and "proactively" managed Afghan affairs. Beijing has also defused various risks and maintained the strategic security of China's northwest periphery, he added.

"In the grand picture of our foreign diplomacy, our proactive position in Afghanistan and its neighbouring South Asian region has been strengthened," Yue told an event at Renmin University's School of Global and Area Studies in Beijing on Tuesday.

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A long-standing concern for Beijing is the potential for its neighbour to harbour terrorist and extremist activities that could pose a security threat, particularly to Xinjiang, which shares a 92.45km (57.4 miles) border with Afghanistan.

In October, the Taliban leadership assured Beijing that it regards threats to China as seriously as a threat against its own country.

While not formally recognising the Taliban regime, China is one of the few countries - along with Pakistan and Russia - to maintain a diplomatic presence in Kabul after the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan two years ago.

Yue's comments came amid growing signs that China is continuing to step up its engagement with Afghanistan, including the arrival in Beijing in November of the Taliban's newly appointed ambassador Bilal Karimi.

That put China among only a handful of nations to host a Taliban ambassador since the Islamic fundamentalist group regained power in August 2021.

Late last month, Karimi met the head of the Chinese foreign ministry's Asian department Liu Jinsong for a "friendly and in-depth exchange" on the bilateral relationship and cooperation in various fields, according to the ministry.

And in late December, China abstained from a UN Security Council vote advocating the appointment of a special envoy for the war-torn country following an independent assessment report issued in November.

The resolution was adopted, with China calling on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to be cautious in dealing with the appointment.

In an explanation of its vote, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN Geng Shuang said a forcible appointment that disregarded Afghanistan's views could leave the special envoy "unable to discharge their functions at all".

It could "also heighten the antagonism and confrontation between the international community and the Afghan authorities," Geng said.

"It is our hope that going forward, the secretary-general will ... continue to strengthen communication and interaction with the Afghan authorities, and strive to find appropriate solutions."

Analysts have argued that China's apparently greater role in Afghanistan shows that Beijing is happy to build relations - starting on trade - with the Taliban to fill a void left by the West and seize opportunities for longer-term gain.

In October, the Taliban's acting minister for commerce and industry Haji Nooruddin Azizi attended the third edition of China's Belt and Road Forum, meeting Yue in Beijing during the trip.

Afghanistan holds strategic importance for the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing's massive infrastructure project. The Central Asian country's geographic position makes it a potential corridor connecting China with the Middle East and Europe.

The landlocked nation also has rich mineral resources which are of economic interest to China including lithium, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones.

China's involvement in Afghanistan has increased significantly since 2012, when Beijing and Kabul upgraded bilateral relations to a strategic partnership under then-presidents Hu Jintao and Hamid Karzai.

Asked in December whether China has formally recognised the Taliban rulers, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that "we hope Afghanistan will ... build an open and inclusive political structure, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, firmly combat all forms of terrorist forces".

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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