15 June 2017

Afghaistan subjected to Unholy Machinations of Pakistan-China-Russia Trilateral

By Dr Subhash Kapila

Afghanistan seems to have been subjected to an increasing number of suicide bombings/terrorist attacks especially in Kabul ever since the emergence of the unholy Pakistan-China-Russia Trilateral and its more than usual interference in Afghanistan on the pretext of search for stability and peace in that war-ravaged country.

If Russia and China were genuine stakeholders in ensuring the peace and stability in Afghanistan then both these Major Powers would have not stooped low in aligning themselves with Pakistan –a nation globally disreputed as a sponsor of Islamic Jihadi outfits to serve its political ends. Have Russia and China forgotten that they too have been subjected to Islamic Jihadi onslaughts with footprints leading all the way to Pakistan?

Pakistan seems to have been emboldened towards increasing use of the Taliban and Haqqani brothers for generating turbulence in Afghanistan, lately. This arises from exploiting the uncertainty vacuum caused on Afghanistan by the stances of the new Trump Administration in the United States. More importantly, Pakistan stands emboldened by its inducing China and Russia in a Trilateral of unholy geopolitical convergences in meddling with Afghanistan’s peace and stability.

The Pakistan-China-Russia Trilateral needs to be designated as an “Unholy Alliance” as all these three nations historically were adversely positioned against Afghanistan’s national interests. Their past dubious record on their Afghanistan –policy formulations and the present pointers of forming a Trilateral is more engineered by their geopolitical interests in keeping alive the turbulence in Afghanistan, in a Great Power games directed against the United States.

The above assertion of mine is borne out by the fact that all three nations of this newly emerged Trilateral have a convergence presently in involving the Taliban in the so-called quest for peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan and China have a past record of collaborating with the Taliban when it was bent on inflicting a medieval brutalisation of the hapless Afghan population. Russia which in the past suffered ignonymously at the hands of the Pakistan-supported Taliban both in terms of hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan and a severe dent in its global image of a Superpower has now opted in an unprincipled pivot towards the Pakistan-China Axis and transforming it into an unholy trinity of using the equally unholy Taliban as a weapon to pursue their geopolitical aims of prompting an American exit from Afghanistan.

The unholy Pakistan-China-Russian Trilateral has not only opted for the destabilising of Afghanistan via the Taliban but also in two steps forward seem to be “permissive” in allowing the Haqqani brothers to indulge in an ever-increasing spiral of suicide-bombings in the Afghan capital. To what purpose and end? It only serves Pakistan’s nefarious designs of establishing a colonial hold on Afghanistan through its well-known dubious Islamic Jihadi proxies.

That an erstwhile Superpower like Russia and a China with pretentions to be a Superpower have opted to make use the Islamic Jihadi fundamentalism of the Pakistan variety and in company of Pakistan reputed for its Islamic Jihadi terrorism affiliates does not add lustre to the political reputations of neither Russia nor China.

Concluding, it needs to be observed that the unholy Pakistan-China-Russia Trilateral would find no credence with the brave and proud people of Afghanistan who have in the past brought external powers to a standstill stalemate as they imposed their geopolitical templates. The future of Afghanistan lies with it being aligned to countries which espouse democratic norms and development and not those whose main political weapon is Islamic Jihadi terrorism or those who become complicit in backing such a strategy. It is for nothing that initially in the trilateral consultation meetings, Afghanistan was pointedly excluded. That by itself pronounces that the end-aims of the Pakistan-China-Russia Trilateral are dubiously suspect.

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