China offers to host Afghan peace talks, backs leading role for Ghani-led govt

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China, which has stepped up its diplomacy between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the wake of the US troops withdrawal from the war-torn country, has offered to host peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Significantly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who in the last two-days held telephone talks with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts, said that China will back the Afghan government headed by Ashraf Ghani in playing a leading role.

The offer to facilitate peace talks was made during Wang’s phone talks with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here on Tuesday.

Asked to elaborate, Zhao said, China is ready to facilitate intra-Afghan talks and will provide necessary conditions for negotiation in China.The US had announced its plans to withdraw its troops completely from Afghanistan by September.

The US troop pull-out has raised concerns in Beijing that it may lead to the regrouping of Xinjiang province’s Uygur Muslim militants in Afghanistan, which shares borders with China.