Exclusive | China and US can cooperate – not compete – over Afghanistan, says envoy
Janan Mosazai, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to China, says the South Asian republic’s neighbour could play a key role in war-torn nation’s revival
Afghanistan is a unique platform for cooperation, rather than competition, between China and the US in the face of rising challenges and threats to regional peace and stability, the Afghan Ambassador to China said.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, Janan Mosazai added that China, an immediate neighbour with a growing economic footprint in Afghanistan and in the wider region, could become a key player in the effort to revive the war-torn nation’s role as a regional hub. Beijing seeks to boost its global influence under its ambitious One Belt, One Road Initiative with trade-boosting infrastructure projects.
“Afghanistan is also the first country that is in a trilateral cooperation mechanism with both China and the United States,” the ambassador said. “And there aren’t other countries in the world that have been able to play this unique role. Afghanistan is playing the role.”
Questions have been raised in recent years regarding the extent to which China, which elevated its relationship with Kabul to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2012 while keeping a communication channel with the Taliban, will fill the vacuum that will be left by the US in Afghanistan. The Obama administration announced it would withdraw US military forces in 2014, though the plan was halted in 2015 because of deteriorating security in the country that was beset by the Taliban, Al Qaeda and militants from Islamic State.