BEIJING, September 18. /TASS/: China and Russia have been successfully acting as protectors of global security amid the failure of the United States’ foreign policy, particularly in relation to Afghanistan, said Chinese experts interviewed by the Global Times newspaper.
"After the collapse of peace talks between the US and the Taliban, a Taliban delegation met with Russian officials in Moscow, and China is also maintaining communications with relevant forces in Afghanistan. This is proof that China and Russia are all contributing to regional peace, while the US is failing," said Yang Jin, an associate research fellow at the department of East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"More importantly, they [China and Russia] are permanent members of the UN Security Council and have high-level mutual trust. They have irreplaceable conditions and capabilities to cooperate and coordinate on balancing the negative impact from the US," he added.
According to the expert, China and Russia are capable of balancing "the negative impact of US unilateralism" as the two countries have enough economic, military, diplomatic and technological influence.
Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University's Institute of International Relations, in turn, pointed out that the damage Washington had done to the global economy was particularly affecting the United States’ allies.
"The US is not only launching trade wars and imposing tariffs against China, but is also targeting other major trade partners, including Germany and Japan. That's why all major powers except the US share a common goal at this moment, which is to safeguard multilateralism and free trade," Li Haidong said, as cited by the newspaper.
US-Taliban talks
Over the past year, the United States and members of the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) have held eight rounds of talks, discussing a ceasefire agreement, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, intra-Afghan dialogue and ways to make sure that Afghanistan won’t turn into a stronghold of international terrorism. The parties reached an agreement on the timing of US troop withdrawal at a meeting on August 24.
On September 2, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad presented a draft peace agreement between the Washington administration and the Taliban to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. However, following a terrorist attack in Kabul claimed by the Taliban, US President Donald Trump announced that he had cancelled meetings with major Taliban leaders and Ghani and called off peace negotiations.
