China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid a surprise visit to Kabul on Thursday, meeting with Afghan officials before flying back to Delhi on Thursday night. Both visits were kept under wraps, and neither Delhi nor Beijing have yet issued a public comment on Mr. Wang’s visit to India.
Mr. Wang will meet with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday to discuss the next steps in ending the two-year military standoff at the Line of Actual Control, as well as PLA infractions along the LAC. Before heading to Kathmandu for the second stage of his South Asia tour, which began in Islamabad on Tuesday, Mr. Wang is likely to issue an invitation to Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) meeting in Beijing this year, as well as discuss the situation in Ukraine. However, it is unclear whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet with Mr. Wang, as requested by the Chinese delegation that organized the visit.
China’s minister arrived in Delhi after harsh words from MEA
Mr. Wang arrived in Delhi a day after the Ministry of External Affairs harshly rebuked his remarks at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Pakistan, where he mentioned “sharing hopes for Kashmir,” a statement that seemed to cast a pall over his visit to Delhi, which comes amid deep tensions between India and China on a variety of issues.
Mr. Wang met with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul, where they discussed “political, economic, and transit concerns,” including trade, education, visas, the mining industry, and BRI projects in Afghanistan, according to a spokeswoman. China is hosting a summit of Afghanistan’s neighbors later this month, and the travel to Kabul, as well as Mr. Muttaqi’s scheduled visit to Beijing, represents the highest degree of engagement between China and the Taliban leadership since it seized power in Kabul in August 2021.
Beijing, on the other hand, was unsure if Mr. Wang would invite India to a “Foreign Ministers’ Meeting among Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries.”
“As Afghanistan’s neighbor, China stands ready to use its power to help the country achieve long-term peace and security.” When contacted on Thursday about the specifics of your query, Chinese MFA spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated, “We will share information in due course.”
Mr. Wang has had past contact with the Taliban, visiting a team led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Tianjin, near Beijing, in July of last year, just before the Taliban took over.
While most countries, including India, closed their embassies as Kabul fell, China showed its support for the Taliban by keeping its mission open, and the Taliban has courted Chinese investment in recent months, despite Beijing’s limited financial assistance in the face of Afghanistan’s unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced earlier this month that it was in talks with China’s Metallurgical Group Corporation to reopen the enormous Mes Aynak copper mine and that a Chinese team will arrive in late March. “They will be physically in Kabul in March and will discuss the issue with the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum,” said Esmatullah Borhan, spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, with plans to restart a stalled project that includes “construction of a railway from Torkham border to Hairatan Port, a thermal power plant with a capacity of 400 megawatts, the construction of Mes Aynak road, and copper processing inside Afghanistan.”
However, the security situation there continues to be a source of concern for Chinese businesses, which Mr. Wang was anticipated to raise with the Taliban.
Mr. Wang previously met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in Pakistan to discuss plans to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan. Mr. Khan is quoted as saying that “China-Afghanistan-Pakistan cooperation is conducive to Afghanistan’s stability and its role as a hub in regional connectivity,” and that Pakistan “is ready to work with China to jointly advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
China and Pakistan have discussed synchronizing their Afghanistan strategies in the past, and both countries have solid relations with the Taliban.
Mr. Wang also spoke with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Qamar Javed Bajwa, about Afghanistan. “The Afghan issue should not be handled by increasing pressure or imposing sanctions,” he stated, criticizing the West, “but by drawing on the wisdom of the East to foster conversation and communication.” “Both China and Pakistan support Afghanistan’s ruling authorities to aggressively construct an open and inclusive political architecture, execute moderate and cautious internal and foreign policies, and resolutely battle terrorism in all its forms,” he said.