US must not 'create new problems' in Afghanistan: China

ANKARA

China has urged the US to avoid creating more problems and play a “constructive role” in Afghanistan’s future after the “severely adverse impact” of its chaotic exit.

“The hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan has caused a severely adverse impact on the situation in Afghanistan and it would not be responsible if it continues to create new problems,” Wang Yi, China’s state counselor and foreign minister, told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call on Monday.

According to a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang underlined that attempts to use “power and military means to solve problems will only cause more problems,” stressing that “such lessons deserve serious reflection.”

Reiterating Beijing’s position on Afghanistan, he said the “facts have once again proved that it is difficult to gain a foothold in a country with a completely different history, culture and national conditions by mechanically copying foreign models.”

Wang said China remains willing to engage with the US “to push for a soft landing of the Afghan issue, so that a new civil war or humanitarian disaster will be prevented in Afghanistan and the country will not relapse into a hotbed and shelter for terrorism,” read the statement.

“China encourages Afghanistan to establish an open and inclusive political framework in accordance with its own national situations,” he added.

The Taliban were removed from power after US-led foreign forces occupied Afghanistan in 2001.

Following rapid advances that took many by surprise, the group seized control of the capital Kabul on Sunday and is now in the process of establishing a government.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara