China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang will meet officials from the Taliban today together with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former President Asif Ali Zardari, with discussions on boosting investment in Afghanistan, including bringing Afghanistan into the Belt and Road Initiative. Representing Afghanistan is acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The event is part of the “China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue.”
The three ministers will discuss “regional stability and transit,” according to Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, along with boosting trade ties, as reported in FT. The meeting comes after China’s Foreign mMinistry said last month that it “welcomes Afghanistan’s participation in Belt and Road co-operation and supports Afghanistan’s integration into regional economic co-operation and connectivity.”
Minister Qin met with Pakistani President Arif Alvi, making it clear that “China is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Pakistan on the Afghan issue and to jointly contribute to the process of peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan,” according to a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, reported TASS.
FT notes that “Chinese and Afghan officials said in January that the state-run Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company had agreed to a deal to drill for oil in the country. The Taliban also last year agreed to a deal with Russia to source oil and wheat.” They add that 6 million Afghans are approaching famine, according to the UN.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking May 5 at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Goa, India, urged a rapid activation of an SCO-Afghanistan group. “The reason is the Americans are trying to interfere in Afghanistan’s affairs again,” Lavrov said. “There is convincing evidence that the Americans support the terrorist groups remaining on the territory of Afghanistan and opposed to the Taliban.” He added that the Americans also “do not abandon attempts to re-inject their military infrastructure into the region around Afghanistan and in Central Asia. Everyone is well aware of the most serious dangers that such attempts are fraught with,” Lavrov stated, stressing that Russia would “firmly resist them.”
