BEIJING: China's ambitions to have a major hand in Afghanistan's stability and development under the Taliban, while boosting its own stature, will be on display at a pair of multinational meetings it is hosting starting Wednesday.
China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to send representatives to the main meetings involving neighbouring states.
A separate meeting of the "Extended Troika" will be held concurrently among special envoys for Afghanistan from China, the United States and Russia, China's Foreign Ministry said.
"China, the US, Russia and Pakistan are all countries with significant influence on the Afghan issue," ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said of the Troika meeting.
The talks will "echo positively with the third meeting of foreign ministers of the Afghan neighbouring countries, to further cement the consensus of all parties, to help Afghanistan achieve peace, stability and development at an early date".
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met individually with his counterparts from Russia, Pakistan and Qatar on Wednesday, according to Chinese state media.
Video showed Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov bumping elbows in a pandemic-era handshake, but no details were given.
In his meeting with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Wang struck a defiant tone over the issue of Ukraine, over which China has been criticised for not condemning Moscow's actions and amplifying Russian disinformation.
Countries should be "especially vigilant as to the negative spillover effects" of the crisis, Wang said.
"We must not allow the Cold War mentality to resurface in Asia or allow small and medium sized countries in the region to be used as tools or sacrificial objects in the games of great powers," he said.
The foreign ministers of Qatar and Indonesia have been invited to the meeting of neighbouring states as guests.
Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will represent Afghanistan at the meeting.
Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West will represent the US at the Extended Troika talks, the State Department said.
Pakistan will also attend and China is believed to have also invited Taliban representatives, the spokesperson said on routine condition of anonymity.
The group's interests are aligned on the need for the Taliban to live up to its commitments to build a truly inclusive government, not provide a safe haven for terrorism, remain stable, rebuild its economy and respect human rights, women's rights and the rights of minorities, the spokesperson said.
China hasn't recognised Afghanistan's new hard-line government but has refrained from the harsh criticism made by the US.
The meetings are being held in Tunxi, an ancient town in Anhui province, possibly because of the relative ease of maintaining a "bubble" separate from the general population.
That would allow the attendees to avoid the 21-day coronavirus quarantine required of international travellers to the capital Beijing and other major Chinese cities.
A month before the Taliban took power, Wang hosted a high-powered delegation from the group for a July 28, 2021, meeting in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.
Wang referred to the group as pivotal" force important to peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
On that and other occasions, Chinese have pushed the Taliban for assurances they will not permit operations within Afghanistan's borders by members of China's Turkic Muslim Uyghur minority intent on overthrowing Chinese rule in their native region of Xinjiang.
Wang also made a surprise stop in Kabul last week to meet Taliban leaders, even as the international community fumes over the hard-line movement's broken promise a day earlier to open schools to girls beyond the sixth grade.
China has studiously avoided mentioning the limits on girls' education and other human rights abuses, particularly those targeting women, while keeping its Kabul embassy open.
Wang's Kabul visit bore all the signs of a formal government-to-government exchange, reinforcing that the ultimate carrot that Beijing can offer through hosting conferences like these is the prospect of the Taliban receiving diplomatic recognition from China and other neighbors," said Australia-based political risk and Asia affairs analyst Henry Storey.
China is counting on such outreach to deflect accusations from Muslim nations about its treatment of its Muslim minorities.
China's other major concern is pursuing opportunities in exploiting Afghanistan's vast, undeveloped resource deposits, especially the Mes Aynak mine that is believed to hold the world's largest copper deposit.
Successive Afghan governments have seen the country's mineral riches, estimated to be worth $1 trillion, as the key to a prosperous future, but none have been able to develop them amid the continual war and violence.
Now, multiple countries, including Iran, Russia and Turkey are looking to invest, filling the vacuum left in the wake of last year's chaotic US withdrawal that led to the departure of international aid groups, the freezing of Afghan assets and the economy's virtual collapse.
At this week's gatherings, China will seek to position itself as the leading champion for humanitarian assistance and economic development projects in Afghanistan and will openly call for the US to unfreeze the Afghan government's assets and accounts, said Columbia University political scientist Alexander Cooley, an expert on Central Asia.
"China is quietly asserting itself as the leading external power in the region," Cooley said.
"In doing so, it will position itself as both critic of United States regional policy and as an alternative leader of a humanitarian coalition comprised of Afghanistan's neighbours."
US President Joe Biden has announced that he will host a special summit of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian countries here this spring, indicating the importance he attaches to his Indo-Pacific policy amidst China's aggressive moves in the strategically vital region.
Biden made the announcement during a joint news conference with the visiting Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House on Tuesday.
"As we look toward the future, Prime Minister Lee and I share a commitment to ASEAN and its centrality in all of what we do. And I'm looking forward to hosting the ASEAN leaders here in Washington, DC for a special summit this spring," Biden told reporters.
The exact dates of the special summit have not been announced yet, but it is expected to be held soon.
Biden did not give any other details about the special summit, but the announcement during his meeting with Prime Minister Lee reflects the significance he attaches to his Indo-Pacific policy.
Singapore and the United States are both committed to freedom of navigation as well as the unimpeded flow of maritime commerce in the South China Sea, Biden said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, established in 1967, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee welcomed the decision.
"We welcome his intention to host an ASEAN-US special summit here soon. It's a strong affirmation of American commitment to Southeast Asia and to ASEAN centrality. The President and I discussed the importance of the US growing both its strategic and economic stakes in the Asia Pacific," Lee said.
Biden said the US and Singapore are working to uphold a rules-based international order supporting the founding principles of the United Nations and advance a future for the Indo-Pacific that is both free and open.
"We also discussed a wide range of concerns for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. That includes ensuring that all nations in the region, including China, uphold the principles that enable a free and open region. Singapore and the United States are both committed to freedom of navigation as well as an unimpeded flow of maritime commerce in the South China Sea," he said, amidst China's aggressive actions in the region.
Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory.
China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Beijing has impeded commercial activity like fishing or mineral exploration by countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, claiming that the ownership of territory belonged to China for hundreds of years.
The vast region is rich in fish stocks and undersea minerals.
It has key sea lanes through which nearly USD 5 trillion in global trade travels annually.
Singapore is the second largest Asian investor in the US, and the US is the largest investor in Singapore.
Singapore's investments in the US and US exports to Singapore support over a quarter million American jobs.
On the defence front, Singapore is a major security cooperation partner of the US, in fact, the only country with this status, he said.
Lee said it is important to advance a positive economic agenda that's open, inclusive, up to date, and flexible.
"We therefore welcome America's proposed Indo-Pacific economic framework which will strengthen America's engagement in the evolving, regional, economic architecture. I discussed with the President his recent visit to Europe and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine," he said.