By Shannon Tiezzi
Has China quietly begun brokering talks between Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban?
Pakistani and Afghan media are reporting that Afghan Taliban leaders visited China for talks with Chinese officials late last year. Pakistan’s The News International, citing a report from the Afghan Islamic Press, reported that two Taliban representatives traveled to China in November. The purpose of the trip was to “share the Islamic Emirate’s stance with China,” according to a Taliban official. The delegation was reportedly led by Qari Din Muhammad, who is based at the Taliban office in Doha, Qatar (and has been involved in Afghan peace talks before).
The visit by Taliban members came on the heels of the 2014 Istanbul Process ministerial conference, held in China on October 31. That meeting coincided with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s inaugural visit to China, with Beijing pledging to provide Afghanistan 2 billion RMB ($327 million) in aid through 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to open “a new era of cooperation in China-Afghanistan relations” while Ghani indicated Kabul’s interest in working with China during the Afghan rebuilding process.
China-Afghanistan cooperation is determined largely by the stability of the security situation – and here the Afghan Taliban remains a major threat. Accordingly, in November 2014 China offered to mediate talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a plan that would greatly increase Beijing’s involvement in the political side of the Afghan rebuilding process (to date, China’s interest has been mostly economic). According to Reuters’ report, based on Chinese government documents, the proposed forum would bring together officials from the Afghan, Pakistani, and Chinese governments as well as Taliban leaders. Under the plan, China “would invite the Taliban to China if Afghanistan agreed to it,” one Afghan official told Reuters.
Read the full story at The Diplomat