China has received an invitation to a “Moscow format” meeting on Afghanistan, is in contact with the Russian Federation and all parties on the issue, said at a briefing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
Earlier, the Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan, director of the second department of Asia at the Foreign Ministry, Zamir Kabulov, said that Russia had invited the Taliban to take part in the “Moscow format” meeting on October 20.
“I can confirm that China has already received an invitation from the Russian side,” the diplomat said.
He noted that China maintains contact and coordination with Russia and all parties involved on this issue.
The Moscow format was created in 2017 on the basis of a six-party consultation mechanism of the special representatives of Russia, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran and India.
In early August, the Taliban stepped up their offensive against Afghan government forces, entered Kabul on August 15, and announced the next day that the war was over. The last two weeks of August from the airport in Kabul, which was under the protection of the US military, there was a mass evacuation of Western citizens and Afghans who collaborated with them.
On the night of August 31, the US military left the Kabul airport, ending the nearly 20-year US military presence in Afghanistan. In early September, the composition of the interim government of Afghanistan was announced, headed by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, who served as foreign minister during the first rule of the Taliban * and has been under UN sanctions since 2001.
*-Terrorist organization banned on the territory of Russia