BEIJING (Agencies): China said on Wednesday it is ready to maintain communication with the leaders of the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, calling its establishment a “necessary step” in reconstruction. Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the comment at a daily briefing in Beijing when asked if China would recognize the new government, whose leaders were named, Reuters reported.
The Taliban drew from its inner high echelons to fill top posts in Afghanistan’s new government, including an associate of the Taliban’s founder as premier. China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, Wang said. After the Taliban took power in August, China had called for an “open and inclusive” government to be established.
“We hope the new Afghanistan authorities will listen broadly to people of all races and factions, so as to meet the aspirations of its own peoples and the expectations of the international community,” said Wang.
Meanwhile, China is currently conducting a feasibility study into sending workers, soldiers and other staff related to its foreign economic investment program, the Belt and Road Initiative, to Bagram airfield, USN reported Wednesday.
Citing a source briefed on the study by Chinese military officials, who spoke to US News on condition of anonymity, the consideration in Beijing is not for any pending movements, rather a potential deployment as long as two years from now.
However, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a denial of plans for a takeover of the military airfield, which is about an hour from Kabul. Bagram air base was first established by the Soviets during their occupation in Afghanistan and was then used by the US. “What I can tell everyone is that that is a piece of purely false information,” Wang Wenbin told reporters.
