China Pushes Taliban-Pakistan Ties, Offers BRI Access Amid India Tensions

Kabul: Amid tensions with India, China is busy making friendship between Taliban and Pakistan. For this, Pakistan has also appointed a special envoy for Afghanistan at the behest of China. Recently, Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq Khan visited Kabul. Here, along with his Chinese counterpart, he offered Afghanistan to join China's flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It is being claimed that the Taliban has accepted this offer. This has now cleared the way for the expansion of BRI to Afghanistan.

China-Pak meet with Haqqani

The first meeting of a series of trilateral meetings was held on Sunday, which was attended by envoys from China and Pakistan along with senior officials of the Afghan Taliban government. Home Minister Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani, China's Special Envoy Yu Xiaoyong and Pakistan's Special Envoy Muhammad Sadiq attended the meeting held at the Home Ministry in Kabul, along with their delegations. The meeting was convened to follow up the discussions held during the fifth trilateral dialogue between the foreign ministers of the three countries, prepare for the upcoming sixth round and enhance comprehensive political and economic cooperation between them.

What Haqqani said in the meeting

During the meeting, Haqqani underlined the importance of strengthening regional ties, saying that from Kabul's point of view, advancing economic and political ties as well as regional understanding can be achieved through mutual respect and constructive engagement. The special envoys of China and Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen good neighbourly relations and promote cooperation with Afghanistan on the basis of mutual engagement. They also agreed that the sixth round of trilateral talks of foreign ministers will be held in Kabul.

China and Pakistan meet Taliban foreign minister

Pakistan and Chinese envoys also met Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. On the occasion, a similarity of views was observed between them on economic issues, on security cooperation as well as matters related to regional stability. The interim Afghan foreign minister assured Islamabad of Kabul's "unwavering support" during the tensions. Pakistani and Chinese envoys also met the Afghan Commerce Minister

CPEC to be extended to Afghanistan

Subsequently, the two sides also met. As part of our ongoing trilateral engagement, I joined the Chinese Special Representative in a meeting with Commerce Minister Nooruddin Azizi and discussed matters related to the expansion of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other related issues. "We had constructive discussions on strengthening trade and economic cooperation. Notably, the three sides agreed to carry forward the understandings reached at the foreign minister-level trilateral meeting in Islamabad in May 2023, particularly on extending CPEC to Afghanistan," envoy Muhammad Sadiq told The Express Tribune.