China expands its role in Afghanistan, Pakistan

[Toramana]

http://i.dawn.com/large/2015/02/54da2df2d6486.jpg?r=1733485123

China expands its role in Afghanistan, Pakistan



KABUL: China has promised to help build a hydroelectric power plant in a violent Afghan border region, as well as road and rail links to Pakistan, in the latest sign it is taking a more active role in Afghanistan.

The assistance will include an unspecified amount of financing, an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman, Sirajul Haq Siraj, said on Tuesday, a day after senior Afghan, Chinese and Pakistani diplomats met in Kabul.

“China agreed to support relevant initiatives for projects including the Kunar hydropower plant and strengthening road and rail connections between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing.

The planned 1,500 megawatt dam on the Kunar River, was previously supported only by Pakistan, which could buy some of the electricity it generates.

In 2013, Pakistan said it would also build a motorway connecting the Pakistani city of Peshawar to Kabul, as well as a railway line from Chaman, on the Pakistani side of Afghanistan's southeastern border to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Kunar is one of Afghanistan's most active battlefields, with deep valleys and forests near the Pakistan border providing cover for different factions of the Taliban.

China's involvement could speed up work on these projects, though major Chinese investments including a large copper mine and railway link near Kabul have been put on hold partly because of militant violence. Siraj said the amount of Chinese financing for the dam and other projects would be decided in later trilateral meetings.

At the meeting, the diplomats also discussed ways to bring Taliban militants to the negotiating table, following a Chinese proposal late last year for a “peace and reconciliation” forum.

“The three sides resolved to make concerted efforts in maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Pakistan said in a statement.

China has growing interests in Afghanistan, which offers a possible route to the sea from China's landlocked west.

China wants the country to be stable, both to help it exploit mineral resources and to weaken Islamist militants it says operate in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

[Toramana]

That will be the best thing to happen. I have full trust in the sincerity of Chinese and Russians to care about the peace stability of the region. Moreover, Chinese involvement in Kunar will help them check any destabilizing influence from the side of Kunar into Xingiang.

[Toramana]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-u-s-exits-china-takes-on-afghanistan-role-1423539002

As U.S. Exits, China Takes On Afghanistan Role
After a Decade of Rebuffing U.S. Requests for Help in Afghanistan, China May Be Ready to Do More.



In December, representatives of the U.S., China and Afghanistan met for private talks in London, the first time the three countries convened to seek ways to forge peace in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. official said.

The previously undisclosed meeting, which came within days of a visit by the Afghan Taliban to Beijing, was a step on a path long resisted by China, wary of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and reluctant to meddle in its neighbor’s affairs. The three countries met again l...

[Toramana]

If one reads the comment to the above one comes to the conclusion that a section of American polity belonging to the conservative repulicans can never reconcile to the idea of being partners with other nations; they want to be eternally masters and hegemon dictating what others should do.

One wonders how long can this attitude go on.

Today it is America sanctioning every other country for the slightest perceived defiance. There may a time come when the sun of American dominance will sit in then it may be the rest of the world will decide now it is time to impose sanctions against America.

All good Americans who are in majority should try to reform this negative attitude in the thinking of some of their war-loving politicians.

[khushal]

The Russians killed 2 million afghans and refuged half the afghan population in Pakistan which resulted in permanent Pakistani leverage over Afghanistan. That was very sincere of them. Go find a Russian Toramana, and kiss his arse.