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Chinese foreign minister last month met his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts in the first tripartite talks in Beijing.
The talks took place against the backdrop of the failure of the quadrilateral format of negotiations between these three countries as well as the United States aimed at finding a solution to the long-running Afghan conflict by involving Taliban in the peace talks.
Though the three-way talks were mainly meant to explore ways and means to resolve the Afghan imbroglio, China, being the common and trusted friend, using the platform tried to lessen the mistrust between Islamabad and Kabul before tackling the actual Afghan issue.
There is a need for a dialogue between Pakistan and Afghanistan to address their political and security-related concerns but such discourse does need an economic element so that they could effectively combat extremism and militancy afflicting their poverty-stricken nations.
Apparently, it was this reason that China invited Afghanistan in the presence of Pakistani foreign minister to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Interestingly, at the height of tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan a few months ago, the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had threatened that Kabul would not let CPEC pass through its territory if Pakistan did not allow it and India access through the Wagah border. Pakistan has persistently refused to give go ahead signal to Kabul for security reasons.
Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani did not raise these concerns in the tripartite talks, however.
Speaking to reporters after the Beijing moot, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi hoped the economic corridor could benefit the whole region and act as an impetus for development.
He said Afghanistan has urgent need to develop and improve people’s lives and hopes it can join inter-connectivity initiatives.
“So China and Pakistan are willing to look at (it) with Afghanistan, on the basis of win-win, mutually beneficial principles, using an appropriate means to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.”
He said this objective could be achieved if the three countries tackle easier and smaller projects first.
“The successful implementation of CPEC projects will serve as a model for enhancing connectivity and cooperation through similar projects with neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and with central and west Asia.”
Wang said the CPEC would ultimately be extended through Afghanistan to the landlocked Central Asia.
“In the long run, through Afghanistan, we will gradually connect the CPEC with the China-Central and Western Asia Economic Corridor.”
He said specific projects and cooperation would be decided in the tripartite consultations “on equal footing”, suggesting that improving livelihoods in border areas may be an entry point for the extension.
Rabbani, on his part, expressed Kabul’s readiness to become part of the CPEC, part of the China’s One Belt and One Road Initiative, and enhance cooperation in the fields of energy, infrastructure and interconnectivity.
Such an understanding between Kabul and Afghanistan might irk India because it has officially objected to CPEC project, particularly its passage through Azad Kashmir.
Moreover, New Delhi has always tried to keep Pakistan out of any regional connectivity project as it tried to project the Chabahar seaport as a rival to Gwadar port, though both Islamabad and Tehran maintained that both projects complement each other.
India has enthusiastically financed Chabahar sea port project and last year the leaders of India, Iran and Afghanistan signed the three-way corridor deal with pomp and show in Tehran.
Some commentators suggest that India’s extraordinary interest in developing Chabahar is to counter China’s CPEC initiative, by trying to pit Pakistan and Iran against each other. But, it is interesting to note that Iran too has shown its interest to join the CPEC.
China, however, has avoided upsetting any other country by projecting the tripartite initiative that envisages Afghanistan’s inclusion into CPEC and made it clear that CPEC has not targeted at any third country.
“The CPEC is an economic cooperation project and (it) should not be politicised,” Wang said, noting that it has no link with “existing disputes in the region, including territorial disputes, nor should it be related”.
Such assurances, notwithstanding, the benefits of China’s One Belt and On Road Initiative could not be fully accrued in the South Asian region unless the mistrust between Pakistan and India is considerably reduced.
Though Kashmir is the core dispute between the nuclear-armed arch rival neighbours since their simultaneous independence from British colonial rule seven decades ago, Afghanistan too has been a sore point between them.
Pakistan has long accused India of supporting terrorist groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban to launch attacks inside its territory from their Afghan sanctuaries.
The United States too has backed India to expand its clout in Afghanistan in order to make Pakistan as well as China uneasy.
China’s efforts to reduce distrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan must be appreciated, but Indian role in Afghanistan is a major stumbling block for these endeavours to come to fruition.
Cashing in on the mistrust between Kabul and Islamabad, New Delhi has stepped up its efforts to boost trade with Afghanistan.
In July, the Afghan President inaugurated the first Afghanistan-India air corridor through which Kabul has, so far, exported over 1,500 tons of fresh fruits and dried fruits, carpets and medical herbs on 56 flights to India.
Last week, the two countries opened the second air corridor by airlifting 40 tons of Afghan fruits from Kabul to Mumbai.
Besides political, security and defence cooperation, growing commercial and economic relationship between Kabul and New Delhi is also a major challenge for the Pakistani policymakers.
Given decades of mistrust and animosity, Pakistan has had the most difficult and complicated relations with India. However, Islamabad needs to redouble its efforts to strengthen its ties with other neighbours, particularly Afghanistan.
From Pakistan’s point of view, the tripartite talks sponsored by China are a brilliant initiative and Islamabad needs to fully grasp the opportunity by actively exploring possibilities to build up economic and commercial ties with Kabul.
Afghanistan is to host the second round of trilateral talks among the foreign ministers in June in Kabul.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad