By Yasir Masood
The world has been anxiously awaiting to see if the Taliban has the capability to forming an inclusive, and representative government in Afghanistan in the wake of the country’s uncertain situation. Finally, the Taliban leadership announced an interim set up in the second week of September, comprising mostly the party’s frontline elders, and some second-tier senior officials.
As expected, the Taliban has assured not to allow the Afghan soil to foster extremism against any third country. The world is curious to know if the Taliban would help protect the human rights, especially of women, and minorities, civil liberties, freedom of speech and expression, etc. Simultaneously, the Taliban has also pledged that the Afghans will enjoy full freedom under the “Sharia law”.
Then, what is Beijing’s role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction? China is a recognized, world class emerging power with all its economic ascendance, carrying considerable leverage on promoting international peace, stability, and development. Beijing has a vast potential to help extricate Kabul from its current difficulties.
In July 2021, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of Taliban, met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin. Wang remarked that “China had always been a reliable friend of the Afghan people”. The Taliban delegation, for its part, assured the Chinese Foreign Minister of its full cooperation on various issues of shared interest.
On my observation, China is likely to have integral objectives with regard to Afghanistan a clean break from East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a terrorist organization, which has been involved in fueling the riots and militancy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Afghan soil is not allowed to become a haven for the franchised, global terrorist outfits. As a result, a secure, stable and peaceful Afghanistan will facilitate China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) towards its early completion; Investing in Afghanistan’s reconstruction, including the rebuilding of much-needed infrastructure; Leveraging Afghanistan as a close regional friend to promote peace, stability and development in Central, and South Asia.
Along with Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and Iran, China has also played a key role in forging the peace process and intra-Afghan reconciliation, paving the way for ending the occupation of the US and NATO of Afghanistan. Ostensibly, the Taliban has already proved their capability to provide security and safety to the Chinese citizens, business organizations and investors to work in Afghanistan in a conducive environment. Even in the past when the Taliban were not in the government, they had ensured the safety and security of the Chinese nationals to develop a mega project of copper worth $3 billion at Miss Aynak. The Taliban would decisively come to terms with new realities and would continue to provide risk-free safety and security to Chinese officials, investors and workers so that the reconstruction of Afghanistan can kick-start.
The Taliban has won militarily but a huge challenge confronts them as to how will they govern and run the impoverished country, and cope with its humanitarian and economic ruin. The US with its withdrawal has already frozen around $9 billion parked in American banks, suggesting that Afghanistan should seek to reduce its dependence on the US dollar and perhaps other western country currencies. The Taliban direly needs to show to the Afghans and the international community that they are now far from being militants but a responsible governing authority, ready to tackle economic and other critical challenges.
The Taliban has rightly pinned hopes that China can help rebuild the country’s economy and set up energy projects, infrastructure, and technology transfers. For China, a stable and peaceful Afghanistan in itself would be a great win-win step forward, though these projects will in themselves also offer many possibilities for mutually beneficial cooperation and a more closely integrated Eurasian continent. To begin with, the Taliban would want to be recognized by Beijing as a legitimate government, influencing other countries to follow China. The Taliban has already indicated that China can help them to rebuild Afghanistan. They would surely want Beijing to assist them financially to save the humanitarian crisis which can go from bad to worse especially in the harsh, incoming winter. China is in an ideal position to help the Taliban to overcome the country’s current challenges. The good news is that China has acted fast by announcing a commodity assistance of US$31 million for the Taliban interim government. Beijing also promised to ship a large quantity of COVID-19 vaccination to Afghanistan.
The Afghans have suffered a lot at the hands of international players’ unilateral interests, while peace remained a distant dream in the last four decades. It is time for the world to promote peace, and harmony in Afghanistan. The Afghans have paid a heavy price in blood, and destruction for sins of non-regional, big countries. Those who pulverized Afghanistan in the last 40 years share major responsibility for contributing to the peace, stability, and well- beings of the hapless Afghan people. A united, stable, and peaceful Afghanistan serves the interests of the region, and beyond.
Yasir Masood – Academic, Foreign and Regional Affairs Expert and a broadcast journalist based in Islamabad. He frequently contributes in the top national & International English dailies on foreign and geopolitical issues.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).
The article has been originally published in CCTV.com
Image Credit. AFP