China will engage in negotiations with the Taliban in "its own way" that will be different from the approaches of other parties that are also involved in peace talks with the Afghan insurgents, Chinese Ambassador in Kabul Liu Jinsong told Sputnik, commenting on the months-long talks that the movement has been having with the United States
KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2019) China will engage in negotiations with the Taliban in "its own way" that will be different from the approaches of other parties that are also involved in peace talks with the Afghan insurgents, Chinese Ambassador in Kabul Liu Jinsong told Sputnik, commenting on the months-long talks that the movement has been having with the United States.
The Taliban and the United States have held six round of peace talks so far. The seventh round is expected to be held soon as US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is out for another push for peace talks.
"We are watching the US-Taliban talks closely, we welcome the talks but we hope it will be sincere talks. Our friends took part in talks in their own way; China will do it in its own," Liu said.
"Yes, if we don't talk to them, then how would we show them our influence? We have our channel to talk with the Taliban, and that is the Afghan government," Liu said.
The diplomat also voiced Beijing's concern about the presence of IS-K (a branch of the Islamic State terrorist organization, which is banned in Russia) in Afghanistan and expressed China's commitment to fight the terrorists.
"Any kind of international terrorist group is a threat not only to China but to the [entire] world, we all need to fight together against it," the ambassador said.
In this context, Liu confirmed that China could build a military base for the Afghan forces close to the Afghan-Chinese border.
"The Afghan government frequently asked us to build a mountain brigade for them. It will be built for the Afghan forces, maybe, in future," the ambassador said.
Afghanistan has been torn by an armed conflict between Kabul and the Taliban, along with other rebel and terrorist groups for decades. The fact that the country borders China's northwestern Xinjiang autonomous region, which has complicated relations with Beijing because of its separatist past, is one of sources of concern for Chinese authorities.
