NEW DELHI: India has been kept out by China from the foreign ministers meet of Afghanistan's neighbours, indicating that the diplomatic standoff between the two countries is likely to continue.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi is hosting the third meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries in Tunxi, East China’s Anhui province, for two days beginning from Wednesday.
Foreign Ministers from Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are taking part in the meet.
"On the Afghanistan meeting, which the Chinese are convening, no they have not invited us," External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar had said after his interaction with Wang Yi.
This is the third meeting of FMs of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. Pakistan had chaired the first meeting in September 2021 and Tehran hosted the second meeting a month later.
China is seen promoting a dialogue which is bringing together Russia, Iran and Pakistan, amongst other neighbours.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is attending this meeting too, after which he will visit India.
“The Afghan situation is now in a critical transition from chaos to order, with the Afghan people facing multiple challenges from within and outside that need to be addressed with more support and help from others,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday.
The acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan’s Taliban government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will also attend the meeting.
"We also expect the international community to give greater support to Afghanistan and call on the US to shoulder the primary responsibility for Afghanistan’s economic reconstruction in real earnest," Wenbin added.
This meeting follows Wang Yi’s surprise visit to Kabul, before he came to Delhi last week. Wang also attended the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meet in Pakistan where he supported the OIC's stand on Kashmir. This drew a lot of criticism from India.
"We reject the uncalled for reference to India by the Chinese Foreign Minister during his speech at opening ceremony of OIC," said a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
China is scheduled to host the next BRICS summit, and though the dates have not been announced yet, a website has been launched for the same. India and China will be at odds during this meeting too as the LAC issue, for which India was
seeking a resolution, remains unchanged.
Wang during his India visit had proposed a three-point approach to achieve the development of bilateral relations, which didn’t offer any solution.