Amidst Modi-Trump bonhomie, China planning to sideline India, US in Afghanistan

China is eyeing ways to sideline the United States (US) and India in terror torn and strategically important Afghanistan in the garb of brokering peace between Islamabad and Kabul.

An editorial titled "China strives to reconcile Kabul, Islamabad" in the Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times says that recently Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited Afghanistan and Pakistan and signed a trilateral joint statement to relieve Afghanistan-Pakistan tension. It has been decided to establish the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' dialogue mechanism.

The editorial also wants the readers to believe that Beijing was forced to mediate on the request of Islamabad and Kabul. "China is not willing to intervene in peripheral countries' internal affairs, and is especially cautious of any involvement in political conundrums of countries where the US has troops stationed. This time, Afghanistan and Pakistan have brought the request to China, and Beijing, under this situation, has reached out to help mediate," says the editorial.

It further targets the US for its role in Afghanistan and says that instead of establish peace it has opened pandora's box. "The military action launched by the US in Afghanistan in 2001 aimed to root out terrorism, but far from achieving this goal, it instead opened up a Pandora's Box. Without a complete plan to cope with the post-war situation, Washington started to withdraw troops from the country. Now the 8,000-plus American soldiers currently stationed in Afghanistan are not very helpful in stabilising the situation."

The newspaper then trains its guns at India and says that India's presence in Afghanistan is only to contain Pakistan. "New Delhi has strengthened its relationship with Kabul in recent years as India is pursuing its geopolitical interests in the region. But it is doing so more out of a desire to contain Pakistan, and has little effect in addressing the Afghanistan-Pakistan feud."

Being a mouthpiece of the Chinese government, the global intelligentsia does expect from the Global Times to divulge the Dragon's real intentions behind its interest in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The editorial, however, in the concluding paragraphs hints about it when Belt and Road initiative is mentioned.

"Stability and the maintenance of normal relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan conform to China's interests, and will contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)," says the Chinese mouthpiece.

Superficially, the BRI is aimed at increasing infrastructural, economic, and political connectivity between China and the other countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, but actually the Dragon wants to encircle India by land and sea. Hence, India has opposed the BRI. Pakistan and China are friends as both see India as a bete-noire. Beijing and Islamabad have been ignoring each other's "misconducts" just to isolate and trouble India.

China supports Pakistan's lust for Kashmir. In lieu of this support, the strategists of Beijing have found stooges in Islamabad who have given areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in a platter to China for exploitation.

China is building $40 million 3,000-km-long China and Pakistan economic corridor that will "only pass through" these areas to connect western China to southern Pakistan through a network of roads, railway lines and pipelines.

The locals of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK are showing strong resentment against the exploitation as the project doesn't offer any benefits for them. China continues to thwart India's bid at United Nation Security Council (UNSC) to get Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar declared as a UN-designated terrorist. In the 15-member UNSC, China is the only country that doesn't see a terrorist in Azhar.

Azhar is a blue-eyed boy of Islamabad who is responsible for launching December 13, 2001 attack on India's parliament as well the January 2, 2016 attack on the Pathankot airbase.

In a reciprocal gesture, Pakistan, which has been shedding crocodile tears on Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims, chooses to keep a mum over China's atrocities on Muslim Uyghur community in its restive Xinjiang province. Out of the severe jealousy for India, the mandarins of Pakistani military have been forcing their successive prime ministers to adopt such policies which will make Pakistan a Chinese colony one day.

On the other hand, India has been gaining respect worldwide that too without changing its age-old policy of peace. Both Pakistan and China realise that India is a powerful country and it is matter of great concern for them that the United States has been coming very close to India.

Especially, the acme of the India-US relation is being witnessed in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rule. The first sign of the closeness was evident when When Barack Obama became the first US President be the chief guest at the Republic Day in 2015.

The epitome of bilateral friendly relations was visible when on Monday US President Donald Trump not only gave a warm welcome to Prime Minister Modi, but also reiterated that India is Great Friend of the US.

Chinese bid to make Afghanistan and Pakistan friends will prove futile as the Afghans won't forget Islamabad's crimes in their country.