Taliban calls China as a ‘friend’, welcomes investment

TIL Desk/World/Afghanistan/ The Taliban has said it sees China as a “friend” of Afghanistan and assured Beijing that it would not host Uyghur Islamic militants from the volatile Xinjiang province, which is a major worry for the Chinese government, according to a media report.

The comments came as the Taliban made territorial gains in the war-torn country amid the withdrawal of the United States forces. China has already evacuated 210 of its nationals from Afghanistan by a chartered flight this week.

Beijing is concerned that under Taliban rule, Afghanistan will become a hub for the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a separatist outfit aligned to Al-Qaeda which is waging an insurgency in Xinjiang. The resource-rich Xinjiang shares about 8-km-long border with Afghanistan.

Playing down China’s concerns, the Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said they see China as a “friend” to Afghanistan and is hoping to talk to Beijing about investing in reconstruction work “as soon as possible”.