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Pakistan, Iran, China and Russia have agreed for integrated efforts for rooting out Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from Afghanistan for ensuring regional peace and to eliminate the terrorism from the region.

The defence sources revealed that the recent meeting of intelligence heads of Pakistan, Russia, Iran and China was held in China in which mutual cooperation against the menace of terrorism between all four important regional players was discussed.

The meeting also took special review of prevailing situation in Afghanistan. It also discussed the matters regarding the threats due to presence of terrorists groups hailed from Middle East in the region and it was clarified that the cooperation of four countries is against ISIS and all other terrorists group and not against any country .

The sources further informed that the increasing activities of ISIS in Afghanistan led the way to call the meeting in which the ways and means to prevent the arrival of ISIS terrorists to Afghanistan from Iraq and Syria was also came under discussion . In this regard, it is agreed that all the four countries would share the intelligence information.

The representative from Russia, Sargai Narshan informed the meeting that according to the information of Russian intelligence agency, around 10,000 terrorist of ISIS are functioning actively in the nine provinces of Afghanistan, whereas the stance of Afghan administration is that the number of ISIS terrorists is not more than 2000 in their country.

In the meeting Iran also showed its reservation on the escalating influence of ISIS. All the members have agreed that the safe heavens of terrorists exist there, where the Afghan government doesn't have its writ.

The meeting was informed that the ISIS in Afghanistan call themselves Khurasan Branch, which is involved in the planning of continued suicide attacks especially in Pakistan so that all the four participants of the meeting have agreed to take measures against ISIS. </s> Alwaght- Iran, Russia, China, and Pakistan have reportedly reached an agreement to join efforts against ISIS terrorist group in Afghanistan.

Senior intelligence officials from the countries have agreed over integrated efforts for rooting out the outfit from Afghanistan during a meeting in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, English-language Pakistani daily The Nation reported on Friday, citing defense sources. Sergei Ivanov, the chief of the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, had also told Russia’s TASS news agency about the meeting on Tuesday.

The quartet also agreed on confronting “all other terrorists groups” in the Central Asian country, the daily said.

The drive, it wrote, was aimed at “ensuring regional peace and to eliminate terrorism from the region.”

The meeting also discussed ways to stop the arrival of Daesh Takfiri terrorists from Iraq and Syria in Afghanistan.

The participants further agreed to share intelligence towards fighting terror.

The Russian side cited the Russian intelligence agency as saying that around 10,000 Daesh terrorists were functioning actively in nine provinces in Afghanistan.

The Iranian side cited concerns regarding Daesh’s growing influence in Afghanistan, according to The Nation.

The group’s Afghanistan branch, known as Daesh-Khurasan, was ”involved in planning continued suicide attacks especially in Pakistan,” the meeting was told.

Most recently, the group claimed responsibility for an explosion that killed at least 128 people targeting an election rally in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan on Friday.

Daesh began its campaign of bloodshed and destruction in Iraq and Syria in 2014. It seized large swathes of land in lightning strikes, prompting the countries to invite the assistance of their allies, including the Islamic Republic.

Iran has been lending military advisory assistance to the Iraqi and Syrian armies in the face of the terrorists.

The group was defeated in the countries towards the end of last year. It’s remnants, however, have been still staging sporadic attacks there.

The group maintains a presence in Afghanistan, most notably in the eastern province of Nangarhar. </s> Intelligence chiefs of Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan gathered in Islamabad on Tuesday to discuss measures against the threat of aggregation of the Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, Russian news agency TASS has reported.

The official confirmation of the meeting came from Sergei Ivanov, chief of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s press bureau. The Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, represented Russia.

“The discussions focused on the dangers arising from a build-up of the Islamic State on the Afghan territory,” Ivanov said.

“The conference reached understanding of the importance of coordinated steps to prevent the trickling of IS terrorists from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan from where they would pose risks for neighboring countries,” he said.

READ | Indian intelligence infiltrated Islamic State ring to track, arrest Afghan suicide bomber sent to hit Delhi

Sources in Delhi told The Indian Express that India has bilateral engagements with all the relevant agencies in Russia, China and Iran, especially on intelligence-sharing and counter-terrorism.

While New Delhi and Islamabad have not had bilateral engagement with each other on counter-terrorism cooperation, sources said they have cooperated under the rubric of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the past six months.

In January-February this year, New Delhi hosted a SCO meeting of counter-terrorism specialists, and Islamabad sent a top four-member team of counter-terrorism and intelligence specialists to attend the meeting.

Interestingly, all four countries which met in Islamabad on Tuesday are members of SCO, but sources said the meeting was not under the rubric of SCO.

Counter-terrorism meetings under SCO are organised under the aegis of Regional Anti-terrorism Structure (RATS), which is based in Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App </s> NEW DELHI: As Russia , China and Pakistan work towards building a new axis in Afghanistan to accommodate Taliban as a tool against the Islamic Sate terror group, it could have unforeseen consequences for the Russia-India relationship.On Tuesday, China, Pakistan and Russia met in Moscow to discuss Afghanistan's "deteriorating" security situation, despite strong protests from the Afghan government. The three countries relented towards the end of the day's discussions and said that they would expand the group to include Afghanistan the next time. There is already a move to induct Iran into this group.Nandan Unnikrishnan, Russia analyst at Observer Research Foundation, said, "In the present context of limited communication between India and Russia, Russia's actions could lead to a drift in relations." India only recently reaffirmed its ties with Russia by announcing almost $10 billion in defence purchases from Moscow.The statement issued at the end of the meeting said, "The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China as the UN Security Council permanent members confirmed their flexible approach to delisting Afghan individuals from the UN sanctions lists as their contribution to the efforts aimed at launching peaceful dialogue between Kabul and Taliban."This could, if Russia and China press ahead, and if the US does not block, result in the removal of some top Taliban leaders from the UNSC sanctions list. Afghanistan, incidentally, has asked for the new Taliban chief to be included in the list.Conspicuous by its absence at the meet was India, which continues to hold Taliban as the biggest threat in Afghanistan. Besides India, the Afghan government and the US both agree to this.The Afghan government is currently going through its own political crisis, with the two key leaders of the unity government, President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah, at loggerheads. The US, which has 9,800 troops in a counter-terrorism role is unsure of how it will utilise its presence in Afghanistan under a Trump administration.India is holding on to the "red lines" for integration of Taliban into the Afghan government but that seems to be getting diluted by the new axis, which is less Afghan-led and more Pakistan-led, putting Pakistan once again in the driver's seat on Afghanistan's future.Iran, which has been doing its own outreach to Taliban, is equally apprehensive of the fallout of IS cadres relocating to Afghanistan as they get driven out of Syria and Iraq.This is essentially a return to the good-Taliban, bad-Taliban argument, as everybody wants to do a peace settlement in Afghanistan. India will remain out of this move yet again. Russia is looking for two things -an opening to Pakistan and a lever against IS that Moscow believes could be at its doorstep, given Russians form the largest group of IS fighters.The last time Russia was on India's side. But this time, Russia says its more worried about the IS than about losing India's friendship. </s> KABUL/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, China and Afghanistan signed an anti-terrorism cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Saturday during the ongoing second trilateral ministerial dialogue in Kabul.

The second round of Pakistan-Afghanistan-China trilateral dialogue is being held in Kabul to discuss peace as well as economic and counter-terrorism cooperation, reported Geo News on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who is leading the Pakistani delegation at the dialogue signed the document along with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Yi and their Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani. The signing was witnessed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Earlier in the day while speaking at the opening session of the trilateral talk, FM Qureshi said that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan will have to collectively foil the designs of enemies of peace in the region.

Speaking at the trilateral dialogue, the foreign minister stressed the need for bolstering regional cooperation in diverse sectors.

Reaffirming commitment to eradication of terrorism, the foreign minister said, “Better border management between Pakistan and Afghanistan and intelligence sharing will be greatly beneficial for both the countries.”

“Pakistan will continue to play facilitative role on Afghan reconciliation process,” he added. “We will do everything to support the growing momentum towards reconciliation provided others play their due role and share responsibility and create an enabling environment towards that end,” the foreign minister further said.

Qureshi continued, “Pakistan has always supported dialogue process for peaceful resolution of Afghan conflict and our stance has now also been vindicated by the international community.”

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his remarks said that his country desires to make the Afghan reconciliation process successful. “We will play our role to reduce trust deficit between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Yi said and added that his country also wants to further strengthen relations with Afghanistan and desires to make it part of CPEC. “We support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” the Chinese foreign minister said.

This is the second meeting of the three foreign ministers after their kick-off meeting in Beijing last year.

FM Qureshi is accompanied by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials of the Foreign Office on his one-day official visit to Kabul.

Further, during his day-long visit, the foreign minister will hold bilateral dialogue with his Chinese counterpart.

Speaking to the media ahead of his departure, the foreign minister welcomed the Chinese initiative of holding trilateral dialogue. “Both Pakistan and China desire peace, stability, prosperity and development in Afghanistan,” he said. “We are carrying the message of friendship and peace to Afghanistan,” he added. The foreign minister stressed that peace is imperative to for the region to move forward on the path of sustainable development.

The one-day Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral talks held in Kabul Saturday yielded remarkable outcome since major players of upcoming polls in Afghanistan namely Dr Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are in need of Pakistan’s support desperately for their contest.

Pakistan and China both have assured generous assistance for the wellbeing of Afghan people as both have announced to some significant projects in this regard. China has announced to lay railway line from Kandahar to Herat and other places afterwards while Pakistan will hand over two most sophisticated hospitals next year with state-of-the-art equipments being built in neighbouring areas of Jalalabad and Logar.

Highly placed diplomatic sources told The News/Jang Saturday evening that President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had meeting with visiting foreign ministers separately. They lack cordiality in their relationship. Chinese foreign minister has assured Islamabad and Kabul that it would provide arrangements for the comfort of each other side’s visitors on Chaman and Torkham borders entry points.

The sources revealed that the trilateral meeting will have positive impact on the talks between Taliban and United States at an unknown place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today (Sunday).

According to original schedule the same had to start a day earlier. It is likely that the talks would continue for two days as Pakistan has been facilitating it on the request of the United States.

NNI adds: Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah has hailed Pakistan’s role in reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

Talking to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Kabul Saturday, he thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the cooperation being extended by Pakistan to attain peace in his country.

The Afghan chief executive expressed hope that the bilateral relations will touch new heights during the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

On the occasion, the foreign minister said Pakistan will continue playing its positive and constructive role in reconciliatory process in Afghanistan.

He said peace in Afghanistan is important not only for Pakistan and Afghanistan but it will have impact on the entire region. He said both the countries have been dealing with the menace of terrorism for over forty years.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed confidence that the Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral dialogue forum will prove useful for peace and stability in the region and social development. </s> Share:

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan hopes to make big achievements from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization after gaining its full membership as the group makes efforts to bring all the members – especially Pakistan and India - closer.

Senior officials at the foreign ministry told The Nation that Pakistan was optimistic to benefit from the SCO for regional peace.

One official said: “We obviously want peace and prefer talks. We are hopeful the SCO leaders will press India to resume the dialogue process.”

“The SCO members have been active to bring Pakistan and India closer. This is a positive step.”

Last year, Pakistan and India formally joined the SCO, spearheaded by China and Russia, despite bilateral tensions bubbling over Kashmir. Leaders of the largely symbolic body - including Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping – had formally signed off on the two countries’ accession at the annual SCO summit in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian premier Narendra Modi shook hands but did not hold a formal bilateral meeting.

Both Moscow and Beijing have expressed optimism that the two nuclear-armed neighbours’ entry into the SCO could strengthen prospects for peace across the region.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947.

Reports said Pakistan, India and other member states of the SCO will participate in the upcoming joint military drill dubbed “Peace Mission 2018” to promote mutual trust against terrorist threats and to maintain regional peace and stability.

The drill’s command post exercise will take place at the Chebarkulsky training ground in Russia’s Ural Mountains region in August. Chiefs of general staff of the SCO nations will also hold a meeting during the joint military drills, it said.

The exercise will follow the 18th SCO summit scheduled for June 9 and 10 in Qingdao in Shandong province. The exercises are biannual, multinational drills with the goal of enhancing counterterrorism coordination and cooperation among the eight member countries, which include China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The drill does not target any third party.

Another official at the foreign ministry said the SCO was a big forum for both Pakistan and India. “Since the SCO prohibits its members from confrontation with each other, it will be beneficial for peace in the region,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Mamnoon Hussain will attend the 18th meeting of the SCO’s Council of the Heads of State at Qingdao in China today (June 9).

The Qingdao summit will mark a year since Pakistan joined the prestigious organization as a full member. The Council of Heads of State is the highest decision-making forum of the SCO which meets annually and considers and defines strategy, prospects and priorities of the organization, said a foreign ministry statement.

The invitation to the president to attend the 18th meeting of CHS has been extended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who would chair the meeting. The meeting will be attended by the Heads of States of SCO Member States, representatives of SCO observer states as well as representatives of international organizations including the UN, the CIS, the ASEAN, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“The SCO is an established intergovernmental organization that aims to strengthen mutual confidence and good-neighborly relations, while promoting effective cooperation in the fields of politics, trade and economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, tourism and environmental protection, among others. Besides Pakistan, its current membership comprises of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and India,” the statement said.

Pakistan shares deep-rooted historical and cultural affinities with member states of SCO. Pakistan affords critical overland connectivity for trade and energy and supports SCO’s efforts for regional integration through linking its flagship program of CPEC with the six land routes of SCO. Pakistan’s membership has been facilitating further deepening and broadening of our multifaceted relations with the individual member states, and SCO region at large, it said.

Since accession as a member, Pakistan has been participating regularly in all SCO meetings and events. It took part in negotiations and finalization of more than twenty documents including the Qingdao declaration, important decisions at the level of the heads of state and agreements under various cooperation mechanisms of SCO. These documents are expected to be signed during the summit.

Pakistan also participated in a number of ministerial-level meetings of SCO member states including those of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Law and Justice, Commerce, National Security, Culture, Tourism and Media besides numerous senior officials’ meetings.

It has twice participated in the meeting of the Chief Justices/Presidents of the Supreme Courts from 23 – 25 May. Pakistan hosted the Legal Experts Group Meeting of the SCO’s Regional Anti Terrorism Structure, marking the first occasion an SCO event has been held in Pakistan.

Pakistan has also been actively participating in various cultural and sports events such as musical performances, film festivals, art exhibitions, youth exchanges and a marathon under the SCO auspices. These multifaceted activities reflect the truly integrated and dynamic nature of the grouping.

While SCO has achieved significant progress in promoting economic, cultural and social wellbeing in member states, its contributions for peace and security in the region are also noteworthy. SCO through its Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) has played a significant role in promoting peace, security and stability in the region.

On the sidelines of the summit, the president will hold important bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the region. </s> Afghanistan is set to host a three-way meeting Saturday with neighbors China and Pakistan to discuss peace as well as economic and counterterrorism cooperation.

Foreign ministers of the three countries will lead their respective delegations at the second round of the trilateral dialogue Beijing initiated last year to help ease Kabul's political tensions with Islamabad.

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi said, "An MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is set to be signed." He did not elaborate.

Pakistani officials say that a trilateral cooperation framework on counterterrorism is expected to be signed at the meeting.

China, a close ally of Pakistan, has lately deepened its economic and political ties with Afghanistan. Beijing is actively using its influence to bring the two uneasy South Asian neighbors closer.

Chinese officials say regional stability and security will discourage anti-China militants from causing trouble in the western Xinjiang region, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in Pakistan over the past five years as part of President Xi Jinping's global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Chinese and Pakistani officials say they are considering expanding the bilateral China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, to Afghanistan, through road and rail links to promote connectivity and economic development in the war-ravaged country.

Beijing's ambassador to Islamabad, Yao Jing, told a seminar this week in Islamabad that BRI is aimed at boosting economic cooperation among regional countries.

"China's message to the region is that our resources should be used for our own developments and prosperity. We should focus on curbing poverty and disease, which are our basic enemies," said the Chinese envoy.

Pakistan says the expansion of CPEC to Afghanistan will give it better access to Central Asian markets for Pakistani exports.

Political tensions, coupled with allegations that security agencies in both countries support militant groups that bring deadly attacks against one another, continue to strain relations between Kabul and Islamabad. </s> KABUL — Afghanistan, Pakistan and China are meeting in the Afghan capital to discuss trade, development and ending the region’s relentless conflicts.

Shahussain Murtazawi, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan president, says envoys meeting Saturday will discuss everything from regional economic development to counterterrorism. It is the second such meeting of the three neighbouring countries.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is attending the meeting on his second visit to Kabul since assuming office. Pakistan and Afghanistan have long accused each other of failing to combat the Taliban and other militant groups that operate along their porous border.

China has lent tens of billions of dollars to Pakistan and the two have forged close economic ties as part of Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” policy of expanding trade links across Asia. </s> Last week saw a historic meeting in Islamabad between the intelligence chiefs of China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran. While the details of the meeting were not disclosed beyond statements implying that counter-terrorism was a dominating theme, it is a safe assumption that the war in Afghanistan was a major topic of discussion.

Today, following on from the intelligence shared between national partners, the Russian President’s special envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov has stated that the Taliban controls over half of Afghan territory at the present time. Due to the remote geography of much of Afghanistan, it is difficult to say with exactitude just how much territory of Afghanistan the Taliban control, with most estimates being anywhere between 35% and 65% of all Afghan territory.

The revelation from Kabulov is therefore crucial as it represents Russia’s official determination of a highly contested question regarding just how profound the resurgence of the Taliban has been since 2001. Equally important to determining how much territory the group which remains outlawed in Russia controls, is determining how much political influence the Taliban have and where. The answer to this comes relatively easily. Perhaps ironically, the Taliban now control much of northern Afghanistan which in the 1990s was the base of the anti-Taliban coalition Northern Alliance which for a time was supported by Iran, Russia and India. Today not only has the internal political geography of Afghanistan changed but so too have international positions regarding the internal politics and disputes of Afghanistan.

The biggest shifts in policy among the concerned powers since the 1990s is as follows:

–While still outlawed in Russia, Moscow now accepts that in a clearly articulated peace process, certain elements of the Afghan Taliban will have to be involved in a negotiated political settlement within Afghanistan as there is no other realistic way to hold Afghanistan together as a peaceful state.

–While still clearly ideologically opposed to the Taliban, Iran has decided to back a general peace process rather than fund specific anti-Taliban factions as was the case in the 1990s when after 1996 the Taliban formed a theocratic government in Kabul.

–Going back to the 1980s, China’s Afghan policy was framed within the context of the Sino-Soviet split which saw neighbours on historically good terms act as rivals. This also helped to maintain good Sino-Pakistan relations even during the era of the widely pro-US General Zia. Now however, the Afghan policy of Beijing and Moscow is virtually identical as both states work closely in calls for a peace process as well as coordinating efforts to preempt a fragile situation on Afghanistan’s borders from becoming worse.

–In many ways, Pakistan’s position has remained the most consistent, certainly since the 1990s. Pakistan has historically feared Pasthun ethno-nationalism being used by Kabul or Kabul’s de-facto overlords as a means of stirring provocations inside Pakistan’s borders. Furthermore, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is aware that those who seek to threaten the unity and territorial integrity of Pakistan have and could continue to use Afghanistan as a base for terror operations in the south-western province of Balochistan.

Because of this, Pakistan has long sought a stable/united government in Kabul that neither has territorial ambitions which could threaten regional stability and likewise, Pakistan has sought internal security in Afghanistan in order for the country not to become a base of anti-Pakistan operations. Therefore, just as Pakistan has long asserted that Afghanistan requires stability combined with a good neighbourly policy of non-interference in the affairs of others, now Iran, China and Russia have come to embrace this pragmatic and security based position as the best possible way to end decades of conflict in Afghanistan.

As Iran’s southern province of Sistan and Baluchestan is now threatened by many of the same extremist forces that have long threatened Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, Islamabad and Tehran are now working ever more closely on coordinated strategies. This highly positive rapprochement between neighbours who prior to the 1980s were on extremely good terms is a crucial development in creating a united front of responsible nations in Asia.

In so far as Iran-Pakistan cooperation is required regarding neighbouring provinces, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri is currently in Pakistan for a three day visit to discuss these matters in a clear sign that if anything, lats week’s meeting between Chinese, Russian, Iranian and Pakistani officials helped to strengthen ties between Tehran and Islamabad.

Russia restates calls for multiparty talks which include the Taliban

Zamir Kabulov defined Russia’s contemporary policies and goals for Afghanistan in the following way:

Kabulov reiterated that the continued US presence in Afghanistan makes such a format less easy to achieve because rather than viewing the Kabul government as a diverse coalition of ethno-political forces, the Taliban continues to view the government as a US puppet in spite of some recent signs of an partial independent streak. Kabulov continued, “They [Taliban] don’t’ want to hold talks with it [Kabul government] but want to negotiate separately with the Americans”.

The views expressed by Kabulov encouraging a multi-party dialogue process which is inclusive of the Taliban combined with a multinational format for hosting these discussions is now the favoured format not only in Russia but also in China, Pakistan, Iran and the concerned central Asian republics. By contrast, the US and India remain reticent to embrace such a format.

For the US, it is a matter of seeking to prolong the Afghan conflict so as to create a permanent roadblock to further trade inter-connectivity between China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran while it also serves the US strategic interest to have troops and military resources on the borders of Pakistan and Iran in particular. Finally, as part of the overtly cynical US strategy in Afghanistan, while much of the violence in the country prevents the US from exploiting Afghanistan’s mineral resources to the fullest extent, the matter is now one of keeping others away from Afghanistan’s natural mineral wealth as part of a wider stalling tactic designed to retard the progress of regional cooperation between sovereign nations.

For India, the Afghan issue remains a simple matter of not wanting to lose the country as a current and future base from which to covertly launch anti-Pakistan provocations. Afghan territory has been useful to India in this way in the past and for elements in India’s RAW (intelligence agency) Afghanistan is still coveted for this purpose. Thus, for both Washington and New Delhi a policy of “the worst the better” can by contrasted with a Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Pakistani and pan-central Asian policy of “the last best hope for peace and stability is a genuine and meaningful all parties format”.

While the US remains the most powerful singular military force in Afghanistan, in many respects the Taliban are once again the most potent political force in the country. Paradoxically this is the case both because of and in spite of the US presence. On the one hand, the fact that the Taliban have been able to politically flourish in recent years is symptomatic of the disconnect between obvious American military power and America’s political powerlessness in Afghanistan. At the same time, while the Taliban were once considered taboo for some Afghans including in the Pashtun ethnic community, after years of a seemingly endless US presence in the country, the Taliban are now viewed by many Pashtuns as a kind of resistance organisation which is supported because the group is seen as an effective alternative to the US model occupation that has been rubber stamped by Kabul.

This manifold crisis is one that China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and the central Asian republics have committed to solve through collective peace making, although even this offers no guarantee of a Kabul-Taliban ceasefire let alone of a future US withdrawal. In any case, this is the only viable option when it comes to attempting anything resembling a lasting peace.
Pakistan, Iran, China, and Russia agree on joint efforts against the Islamic State group in Afghanistan, in an effort to ensure peace and eliminate terrorism from the region.