On December 10, the United Nations Security Council announced a meeting on the Afghanistan issue. At the meeting, China, which is rare in its usual approach, pointedly named the Afghan Taliban and put forward higher demands.
Chinese representative Fu Cong said at the meeting that he urged the Afghan government to correctly understand the counter-terrorism issue, implement its counter-terrorism commitments, and take resolute and effective actions to eliminate all terrorist forces in Afghanistan, thereby gaining the trust of regional countries and the international community.
Compared with previous efforts by our country in the Afghanistan issue, where we took an active attitude to promote international cooperation, this criticism of the Taliban is not only rare but also very severe in tone.
This is because, within the past 20 days, Afghan armed groups have repeatedly crossed into Tajikistan to attack foreign workers, causing casualties, and our embassy in Afghanistan has issued two travel warnings, which reveal the severity of the situation in the region.
Therefore, in the face of the Taliban's passive anti-terrorism behavior, it is necessary for us to give them a warning, urging the Taliban to fulfill their previous political commitments.
However, after being named by our country, the Taliban seems to have become upset, and even refused to participate in a key regional meeting involving China and Russia.
On December 13, the Afghan Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that it would not attend the Afghanistan regional issues meeting to be held in Tehran, Iran, on the 16th.
The Taliban stated that the reason for not attending was that Afghanistan already maintains active relations with neighboring countries under the existing mechanism, so there was no need to participate in this mechanism.
Although the meeting was hosted by Iran, since China, Russia, and Pakistan, among other neighboring countries of Afghanistan, participated, the Taliban's move not only embarrassed Iran, but also showed a lack of respect towards neighboring countries such as China and Russia.
In fact, the Taliban's refusal to attend this meeting had three main reasons.
First, currently, Afghanistan has border conflicts with Pakistan, and the Taliban does not trust the Pakistani government's ceasefire, feeling that this meeting was set up by China, Russia, and Iran to mediate, and thus became dissatisfied.
Second, although the Taliban promised to investigate the incidents of attacking Chinese workers, while China's statement at the UN did speak on behalf of the Taliban, it still carried some pressure, making the Taliban feel pressured, and their trust began to waver.
Third, besides China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan, the Taliban has received support from India, an important regional ally, and is trying to increase its external cooperation voice by further cooperating with India.
Naturally, after rejecting the meeting organized by China, Russia, and Iran, the Taliban began to show favor towards India.
On the same day, the Taliban's Commerce Minister Nuruddin Azizi told the state television that India is an important potential trading partner for Afghanistan, and he would lead an economic delegation to visit India to try to break through the bilateral trade volume of $1 billion.
For the Taliban, at a time when neighboring countries such as China, Russia, and Iran have raised demands, India has become a lifeline. By relying on India, the Taliban can somewhat offset the emotions of neighboring countries.
However, although the Taliban may have good intentions, India wants to do business with Afghanistan, it must go through the territory of neighboring countries, and India cannot ignore the positions of neighboring countries other than Pakistan, which also limits the upper limit of India-Afghanistan cooperation.
The Taliban's behavior also reminds us that there is a possibility of the Taliban turning its back quickly, and cooperation with Afghanistan should maintain a high risk awareness. If the Taliban's attitude changes completely, or if the anti-terrorism situation worsens, we should prepare for the worst case while promoting regional stability.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7583610585846186559/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author alone.