State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang attended the 4th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries in Samarkand. Acting Foreign Minister Saidov of Uzbekistan presided over the meeting. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Abdullahiyan, Tajikistan Foreign Minister Mukhriddin, Turkmenistan First Deputy Foreign Minister Hajiyev, and Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Na attended.

Qin Gang said that the current situation in Afghanistan is stable with worries and turmoil. It is in a critical period of adjustment and transformation of domestic and foreign policies, and it urgently needs more attention and input from the international community, especially neighboring countries. All parties should demonstrate the neighborly spirit of good-neighborly friendship and mutual assistance, promote the implementation of the outcomes of previous foreign ministers’ meetings, and make a common voice on supporting the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and promoting security and stability in the region.

Qin Gang emphasized that when one family is in trouble, the neighbors are in trouble. The Afghan issue has been delayed for many years, both due to the “untreated old disease” and “the difficulty of a new disease”. As a neighboring country, we should play a leading role in helping Afghanistan overcome difficulties and challenges and achieve stable development.

The first is to crack down on the terrorist forces in Afghanistan, eradicate the soil that breeds terrorism from the source, and resolutely prevent Afghanistan from becoming a terrorist sanctuary, breeding ground, and source of proliferation again. At the same time, deepen regional anti-terrorism, drug control, and refugee cooperation, strengthen border control, and jointly help Afghanistan improve its anti-terrorism capabilities, effectively preventing terrorists from crossing the border and causing chaos.

The second is to urge the US to fulfill its responsibilities. The United States is the initiator of the Afghan issue, and it has not reflected on the serious harm it has caused to the Afghan people. The US should immediately lift its unilateral sanctions against Afghanistan and return Afghanistan’s overseas funds.

The third is to call on Atta to be inclusive and establish a government. On the basis of respecting Afghanistan’s independence, sovereignty, and national self-esteem, guide Afghanistan to conform to the trend of the times, learn from the mature practices of other Muslim countries, and reflect more inclusiveness and progress in regime building and specific governance.

The fourth is to carry out pragmatic cooperation related to Afghanistan. Accelerate the implementation of the “Tunxi Initiative”, support Afghanistan to give full play to its location advantages as the “Heart of Asia”, integrate into the process of regional interconnection and economic integration, and improve its independent and sustainable development capabilities.

Qin Gang said that China will continue to provide support within its capacity for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and is willing to work with neighboring countries to adhere to amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, to build friendship and partnership with neighbors, to deepen friendship, mutual trust and integration of interests with neighboring countries, and to jointly promote Afghanistan’s development. Properly resolve the issue and be committed to the general security and common development of the region.

All parties conducted in-depth discussions on the Afghan issue, and agreed that the meeting of neighboring foreign ministers is at the right time, and countries in the region share a common destiny, and should strengthen coordination and cooperation to jointly implement the “Tunxi Initiative” and promote regional connectivity. All parties expressed that they should maintain communication with the interim government of Afghanistan, guide and promote it to fulfill its internal and external commitments, build an inclusive and moderate government, protect women’s rights, restore the economy, and improve people’s livelihood. ism and drug trafficking. Oppose external forces to undermine the security and stability of Afghanistan and the region, oppose the evasion of responsibility by the country that is mainly responsible for the current situation in Afghanistan, and close the door to contact and dialogue with the Afghan side.

The meeting issued the “Samarkand Declaration of the Fourth Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Neighboring Afghanistan”.

After the meeting, Qin Gang attended the Dialogue with Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries + Afghan Foreign Ministers together with other parties.

On the same day, Qin Gang presided over the second informal meeting of foreign ministers of the four countries on the Afghan issue in Samarkand, and met respectively with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and the acting foreign minister of the Afghan interim government Mottaki.

Source: GOV China

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The foreign ministers and high-level officials of China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended the meeting.

In an atmosphere of candor, pragmatism, and mutual trust, all parties had comprehensive, in-depth, and constructive discussions on the current situation and future trends in Afghanistan. The statement is as follows:

All parties reaffirmed that Afghanistan should become a peaceful, united, sovereign and independent country free from threats of terrorism and drugs.

All parties noted the importance of building a broad and inclusive governance system in Afghanistan to reflect the interests of all sectors of Afghan society.

Noting that the security situation related to terrorism in Afghanistan is still grim, all parties agreed that it is necessary to strengthen anti-terrorism security cooperation among neighboring countries of Afghanistan and establish a united front against terrorism.

All parties pointed out that all terrorist organizations entrenched in Afghanistan, including the “Islamic State”, “Al Qaeda”, “Eastern Iraqi Movement”, “Pakistan Taliban”, “Balochi Liberation Army”, “Allah’s Army” and “Justice Army” , “Ansarula”, “Uyghur Movement” and others continue to pose serious threats to regional and global security.

All parties emphasized the importance of fighting the drug threat and called for support for the development of alternative cultivation projects and the fight against drug production and smuggling.

All parties emphasized the need for the international community to maintain dialogue and communication with Afghanistan, called on Afghanistan to take further measures to improve people’s living standards, demanded that the Afghan authorities respect basic human rights including all ethnic groups, women and children, and provide all Afghan citizens with the opportunity to participate in social and political activities. , equal rights to economic and cultural life.

All parties pointed out that regional and international concerted efforts are of great significance to ensuring regional stability, and emphasized the positive contributions of existing regional mechanisms such as the Tashkent International Conference on Security and Economic Development in Afghanistan and the “Moscow Model” consultations.

All parties are highly concerned about the severe humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan, and stated that they will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and provide support for the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan.

All parties noted the key role of the United Nations in providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, and called on the international community to increase emergency humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

All parties reaffirmed their opposition to the practice of politicizing the provision of necessary humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, emphasizing that the distribution and use of aid should be in line with the well-being of ordinary Afghans.

All parties emphasized that providing assistance to Kabul to restore the national economy will help improve the living standards of the people and reduce the number of emigration abroad.

All parties believe that it is very important for Afghanistan’s neighboring countries to implement major international energy, transportation, communication, infrastructure and other projects, which will help Afghanistan’s social and economic development and actively integrate into the world economy.

The parties noted Uzbekistan’s initiative to establish an international negotiating group on Afghanistan with the support of the United Nations and Tajikistan’s initiative to establish a “Security Belt around Afghanistan” and looked forward to receiving comprehensive concept papers from the initiative parties.

Urge the countries that are mainly responsible for the current predicament in Afghanistan to earnestly fulfill their commitments to the economic reconstruction and future development of Afghanistan.

All parties reaffirmed the early launch of the three working group meetings on politics and diplomacy, economics and humanity, and security and stability.

All parties thanked Uzbekistan for hosting the fourth foreign ministers’ meeting of neighboring Afghanistan at a high level, and supported Turkmenistan in holding the fifth foreign ministers’ meeting in Ashgabat in 2024. Meetings can be held earlier if necessary.

Source: The Paper

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The question of whether the regional states can put aside their mutual distrust  to come up with a collective response to the growing Afghan threat would top the agenda of the upcoming Moscow meeting of the Heads of the Security Councils of ex-Soviet Central Asian republics,  India, Pakistan and China, slated for this week. .

The fifth round of consultations of the Secretaries of the Security Councils will probably become the most dramatic in its history as the security situation in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating and has already lead to the closure of the several foreign  embassies in Kabul.

The destabilization is also fueled by the mushrooming conflicts in the Taliban’s troubled relations with the leading powers of the Muslim world – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

It should also be noted that the current meeting of the Heads of the Security Councils of regional states will gather in Moscow after a nine-month break. The previous round of consultations on Afghanistan, which was attended by the Secretaries of the Security Councils of India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, was held on May 27 last year in Dushanbe.

Prior to that, the heads of the Security Councils met on November 10, 2021 in New Delhi.

“The Secretaries of the Security Councils of regional powers  have been invited to Moscow. These are Russia’s partners from Central Asia, as well as Pakistan, India, and China,” Zamir Kabulov, Special Representative of the Russia’s President in Afghanistan told TASS agency.

During the rule of the pro-Western Afghan government in Kabul, Zamir Kabulov was one of the most outspoken Russian critics of the pro-American regime of President Ghani, blaming it for many perils of Afghanistan. At the same time, Russian diplomats regarded  the Taliban as the national interests-oriented force with a potential to  put an end to the rule of alleged “American puppets” in Kabul.

It is highly symbolic that on the very day of the overthrow of President Ghan government i, the Russian ambassador in Kabul appeared on Russian television, radiating hope and telling the audience that long-awaited calm and order had finally reigned in the Afghan capital — thanks to Taliban.

It is noteworthy that during the rule of President Ghani organizers of the regional meetings on Afghanistan held in so-called Moscow format didn’t invite representatives of the legitimate Afghan authorities, as well as representatives of India, while Pakistan was always on board. At that time the Moscow meetings were invariably attended by representatives of the Afghan elite with dubious reputation  who were part of the inner circle of friends of Zamir Kabulov and pretended to act as «representatives of the Afghan people».

The Taliban’s victory has changed a lot.

Veterans of previous meetings, like ex-President Hamid Karzai, no longer appear in Moscow these days. At the same time, a new  tango is danced in relations with the Taliban.

The Taliban did not participate in the consultations of the secretaries of the Security Councils in Dushanbe and New Delhi.

However, this circumstance did not prevent the new Afghan authorities from sending a strong signal on the eve of the current Moscow meeting that they consider their non-participation in regional consultations on Afghanistan to be an abnormal situation.

“The Islamic Emirate has not yet been invited, but at the meetings where Afghanistan is discussed, an Afghan representative should be present as a participant to shed light on the situation,” Zabihullah Mujahid, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information in the Taliban government, said last Sunday in an interview with the Afghan Tolo News channel.

Citing sources in the Afghan government, Tolo News reported that, despite the lack of an invitation, the Taliban hoped to come to the Russian capital this week to discuss the issue of recognition of the Kabul government.

In the meantime, the fifth round of regional consultations on Afghanistan will take place against the backdrop of increasing Western pressure on Kabul and the deterioration of relations between the new Afghan authorities and the countries of the Islamic world.

On the eve of the Moscow meeting  State  Secretary Blinken announced the introduction of visa restrictions for members of the leadership and activists of the Taliban movement for infringing on women’s rights.

However, the Taliban relations with the states of the Islamic world are also not in a good shape. As it became known last Sunday, the Saudi authorities refused to issue a visa to the Minister for Hajj Affairs in the Afghan government, Nur Mohammad Saqib. According to the Afghan media, the reason was Riyadh’s dissatisfaction with the fact that the Taliban imposed restrictions on education for girls.

Days before that Saudi diplomats accredited in Kabul hurriedly left Afghanistan on board a Kam Air plane. While there were no official explanations from the Saudi authorities, the Afghan media indicated that the departure of the diplomats could have been an expression of protest against the Taliban’s decision to ban Saudi embassy employees from performing their professional duties, as well as was triggered by worsening security situation.

According to the Al Arabia TV channel,  following Saudi Arabia, several Arab and Western countries also decided to withdraw their diplomats from Kabul for security reasons.

However, the main disappointment for the authorities in Kabul was the continuing deterioration of relations with Pakistan, which for many years remained the main pillar of the Afghan Taliban.

After the Taliban came to power in Kabul Afghanistan turned into one of the main sources of threats to Pakistan’s security.

The security situation in Afghanistan was discussed last week at Moscow talks involving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“We have talked a lot about the situation in Afghanistan, it is directly related to the task of eliminating terrorist threats in our region. So far, unfortunately, this has not happened on the territory of Afghanistan, but efforts are being made, and we have agreed to use the opportunities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for this purpose,” Sergey Lavrov said.

The fifth round of consultations of the Security Council secretaries scheduled in Moscow would be followed by another regional meeting on Afghanistan which is due to take place in Uzbekistan in March. “Uzbekistan wants to host a ministerial meeting of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries plus Russia in March. There are no dates yet. Special representatives will gather on the eve,” Zamir Kabulov said.

“The security situation in Afghanistan disappoints even the few rosy optimists in Moscow who initially pinned hopes on the “nationally oriented” Taliban government. Less than two years later, the hopes faded away as the country was covered by a wave of terrorism. The Taliban regime is unable to provide security even in its capital. With the connivance, and sometimes with the assistance of the Taliban, the Islamic State terrorist group is gaining strength in the country. At the same time, unlike the Taliban, ISIS members see their future in expansion. They intend to spread their values to neighboring countries, including the republics of Central Asia,” Vadim Kozyulin, Head of the project  “Security in Central Asia and Russia” at the Moscow-based analytical PIR Center, told India Narrative.

“In the wake of the new Afghan fighting season in Spring , the countries of the region will have to take urgent  steps to neutralize newly-emerging threats. No doubt Afghanistan has become a source of headache for all regional neighbors, including its former mentors and sponsors ” Vadim Kozyulin adds.

source: indianarrative

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