China and the US mentioned the quickly evolving scenario in Afghanistan throughout their first spherical of military-level talks after President Joe Biden got here to energy in January this 12 months, a media report mentioned on Saturday.
Deputy director for the People’s Liberation Army Office for International Military Cooperation Major General Huang Xueping held a video convention along with his US counterpart Michael Chase final week.
“Afghanistan crisis is one of the most urgent issues of risk management that needs to be discussed. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi raised this issue in the Alaska talks [earlier this year], but his American counterpart ignored it,” the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted an official of the Chinese navy as saying.
The US and China held their first high-level talks in March in Alaska after Biden assumed energy, the place Wang and high Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi exchanged barbs with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
“The Chinese military has maintained a middle-level military-to-military communication channel via the defence attache in the US embassy in Beijing, and [last week’s call] is the first time senior officers resumed talks,” the Chinese official mentioned.
China had hoped to trade intelligence about Afghanistan when Wang and China’s international coverage chief Yang met US Secretary of State Blinken in Alaska in March as a result of Beijing had realised how difficult and dangerous the scenario would turn into if the US pulled out all its troops from Afghanistan, the report mentioned.
“If the US and China started talks about Afghanistan risk assessment, it would not have done so much damage to both countries. China evacuated almost all their nationals three months ago,” the report quoted the Chinese navy official as saying.
The US and NATO troops got here below assault from Islamic State suicide bombers at Kabul airport on Thursday that killed 169 Afghans and 13 American troopers.
The Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-Okay, claimed duty for the assault that got here after the Taliban seized energy in Afghanistan amid the US troop withdrawal.
The Taliban swept into Kabul on August 15 after the federal government collapsed and embattled President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation. Since then, tens of hundreds of individuals determined to flee a rustic ruled by the Taliban have been attempting to flee or have already got been evacuated.
“What China is concerned about is that the extremist forces, especially the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, (ETIM) will expand their power and influence amid the chaos in Afghanistan, which needs China, the US and other countries to work together to prevent it from happening,” the Chinese official mentioned.
While expressing shock over the Kabul blasts, China on Friday mentioned the safety scenario in Afghanistan remained ‘complex and grave’ and supplied to work with the worldwide neighborhood to cope with terrorist threats whereas asking the Taliban to interrupt off with all terrorist teams.
Observers say the Kabul blasts confirmed that ISIS-Okay may function with impunity in Kabul below the Taliban management which will likely be a disquieting issue for Beijing as it’s banking on the Afghan militant group to rein within the Uygur Muslim militant group from Xinjiang.
Without straight naming the Taliban, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian instructed a media briefing on Friday, “We hope relevant parties will take effective measures to ensure a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan and ensure the safety of the Afghan people and foreign citizens in the countrymen”.
Tensions between China and the US over Taiwan and the South China Sea coupled with rising discord between the 2 nations over the origin of coronavirus, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong have remained excessive after Biden took over because the president of America.
On Friday, the Chinese Defence Ministry termed as ‘provocative’ the crossing of two US naval ships via the Taiwan Strait, in what the US Pacific Fleet described as a routine operation.
This was the eighth time the US naval ships handed via the channel after Biden turned the president.
“The frequent provocative moves [the passage of American vessels] are of a very bad nature and show the US is the biggest destroyer of peace and stability and the biggest maker of security risks across the Taiwan Strait,” Chinese defence ministry spokesman Tan Kefei had mentioned.
The US Navy and Air Force additionally performed such missions within the disputed South China Sea to say freedom of navigation, difficult China’s claims of sovereignty over the realm.
Beijing claims virtually all the 1.3 million square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been constructing navy bases on synthetic islands within the area additionally claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Beijing has impeded business exercise like fishing or mineral exploration by nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, claiming that the possession of territory belonged to China for a whole bunch of years.
