A Chinese Political Science expert Cheng Xizhong says Pakistan played an important role for peace talks between Afghan Taliban and the United States.
In an article published in China Economic Net, he said Pakistan has been playing a pivotal role in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan as neighbouring country.
Notably, Together with Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US, China was member of the quadrilateral coordination group (QCG) that tried for several months to kick-start the process. China was included in the QCG as Afghanistan and the US hoped it would be able to persuade its close ally, Pakistan, to play a more positive role in the context of the Afghan conflict by bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table. The QCG was never formally disbanded. However, after failing to contribute to the peace process in Afghanistan, it appeared to have outlived its utility.
China has also sought to play the peacemaker in the context of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations. Taking advantage, of its friendly relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan, China has been trying to bring the two countries closer by launching a tripartite commission set up as a part of its initiative to discuss bilateral issues and disputes.
To-date China has backed every Afghan peace initiative. It supported the Taliban-US talks being held in Doha, Qatar. It also backed the intra-Afghan meetings hosted by Russia in Moscow.
While China has been taking keen interest in the developments in neighbouring Afghanistan for long, its role in promoting the Afghan peace process came to notice first in early 2015 when it coordinated with Pakistan to host a meeting between a Taliban delegation and Afghan government officials in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. This proved a forerunner to a meeting between Afghan government functionaries and Taliban representatives in Murree in July 2015. Chinese and American diplomats were allowed to sit in as observers in the landmark one-day meeting.
