China and Russia team up at UNSC over Afghan issue

China, which along with Russia abstained from voting on the UN Security Council Afghanistan resolution on Monday, made it clear in its explanation to the 15-member body that it had “huge doubts about the necessity and urgency of adopting this resolution and the balance of its content”.Also, China told the Council that it was necessary for the international community to “engage with the Taliban, and actively provide them with guidance”. Russia went a step further to highlight the “negative impact of evacuation of highly skilled, qualified Afghan personnel” on Afghanistan’s “socio-economic situation”.ET has learnt that China also wanted the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a radical Uighyur outfit active in Xinjiang, named in the resolution alongside the ISIL, whose affiliate has claimed responsibility for the Kabul airport attack.The US, which along with the UK and France had circulated a draft UNSC resolution seeking to hold the Taliban accountable to its commitments against terror outfits, had last November delisted ETIM from the State Department terror designation list. An incensed China has been asking the US to put it back on its list, but Washington has aired doubts over the group’s potency and existence, while expressing larger concern on the allegations of human right violations by the Chinese government against the Uighurs.85814198“China has participated constructively in the consultations and put forward important and reasonable amendments together with Russia. Unfortunately, our amendments have not been fully adopted,” the Chinese side is believed to have told the Council, adding that there must not be “double standard” or “selective approach” on countering terror.The details of the amendments were articulated specifically in the Russian explanation of vote, once again baring the level of close coordination between Beijing and Moscow at the UNSC. The Russian side specified three issues it wanted in the resolution.First, it pointed out that the sponsors of the resolution refused to mention ISIL and ETIM in part on counterterrorism. “We interpret it as unwillingness to recognize the obvious and an inclination to divide terrorists into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’.”Second, Russia wanted the resolution to reflect the “unacceptability and negative impact” of evacuation of highly skilled and qualified Afghan personnel. But the basic text of the resolution was premised on getting Taliban to allow Afghans with valid travel documents to leave the country.Third, Russia had suggested that the resolution state the “adverse effects” of freezing of Afghan financial assets, which boils down to granting Taliban access to funds and resources.Both China and Russia alleged the western powers were trying to shift the blame. As the Chinese side said before the Council: “They cannot claim to care about Afghan people’s welfare, while imposing unilateral sanctions, or claim to support Afghanistan’s acceleration of economic and social development, while seizing and freezing Afghanistan’s overseas assets. They have left behind in the country huge catastrophe they have created but shifted the responsibility to Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and the Security Council.”China also brought up the issue of civilian casualties in the retaliatory attacks by the US following the Kabul airport bombing. It asked the US to stop “indiscriminately bombing the civilian populated areas in Afghanistan”. Despite these differences, China and Russia as permanent UNSC members did not veto the resolution, probably because the reference to UN entities in 1267 automatically included ETIM, though the specific purpose of getting the US to equate it with ISIL could not be achieved.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/38w5qMM