Nations must work together to aid Afghanistan

The changing situation in Afghanistan is shifting the geopolitical landscape in the region and has induced multiple non-traditional security threats, yet its complex risks and far-reaching implications remain to be fully revealed, analysts said.

Since the withdrawal of the United States and the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan in August, the situation in the war-torn country has changed abruptly, raising questions regarding the security and stability of Afghanistan as well as the region.

"The combination of COVID-19, terrorism and refugee crisis will bring a huge security challenge to Afghanistan's neighbors in the future, which highlighted the necessity for them to stand together against terrorism and extremism," said Wang Xu, associate professor and executive deputy director of the center for South Asian studies at Peking University.

The hasty withdrawal of the US has left a "strategic vacuum" in the country, which attracted various "players," Wang said, adding that there are more "proxy terrorist" groups that are active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nations in the region. Wang spoke at a recent seminar on counterterrorism held both online and offline in Beijing.

The chaos in Afghanistan will have a spillover effect on international terrorist forces, Wang said.

Since mid-August, Afghanistan has suffered several terrorist attacks, including a deadly suicide attack at the airport, suicide bombings against mosques and hospitals. China and other central Asian nations have expressed concerns over terrorist activities.

"It must be recognized that preventing Afghanistan from becoming a harbor for terrorist and extremist forces is the bottom line of most countries in and outside the region," he said.

The method of terrorism and the fight against it has taken a new form and substance with the changing situation in Afghanistan, said Idrees Zaman, former acting foreign minister of Afghanistan.

"The region therefore must act together to think wisely about the situation in Afghanistan... and there is a need for strengthened regional cooperation, using the tools that the countries of the region have to not only hedge their policies, but also to promote economic cooperation and security cooperation," he said.

In the meantime, the resurgence of terrorism will aggravate humanitarian crisis in the country, he said, adding that many Afghan people are seeking asylum in neighboring countries.

The United Nations Security Council recently adopted a resolution clearing the way for humanitarian aid to reach Afghans, a key move to save lives and livelihoods in the face of a harsh winter.

China and neighbor countries of Afghanistan should coordinate their actions and work more closely together in order to provide context for Afghanistan to interact with the world and make it hard for anybody to interfere in a non-constructive way, said Raffaello Pantucci, senior research fellow at the Royal United Service Institute of the United Kingdom.

However, he said, there is a lack of coherent, unified regional response to what's happening in Afghanistan at the moment.

Sayed Ghoneim, chairman of the Institute for Global Security and Defense in the United Arab Emirates, said that China has been working hard to help Afghanistan maintain peace and stability. It hopes that through forging more cooperative partnerships and multilateral dialogues mechanism, it will further contain conflicts and help Afghanistan achieve peace and stability, he said.

China has made the most intensive diplomatic efforts of all countries involved in the Afghan issue, the country's special envoy for Afghan affairs Yue Xiaoyong said earlier. Except for maintaining direct contacts with the Afghan Taliban, the country has also been active in various international, multilateral, and bilateral talks on Afghan issues with regional governments and international powers.

A latest bunch of assistance with over 10 million yuan ($1.57 million) worth of medical, livelihood and educational supplies provided by the Chinese Red Cross Society arrived in Kabul last week.