China To Skip Delhi Dialogue On Afghanistan Due To Scheduling Issues - Foreign Ministry

China is not participating in the upcoming Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan due to an inconvenient schedule, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2021) China is not participating in the upcoming Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan due to an inconvenient schedule, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.

The Indian External Affair Ministry announced on Monday that New Delhi would host the dialogue on Afghanistan this Wednesday on the level of national security advisers and secretaries of security councils. The participants will include representatives of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Indian media have reported that China and Pakistan were invited but refused to participate.

"It was inconvenient for the Chinese side to come to the meeting due to the schedule, we have already presented the reply to the Indian side," Wang said at a briefing.

In mid-August, the Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorist activities) entered Kabul following several weeks of advancing that coincides with the withdrawal of foreign troops. The last province to resist the group, Panjshir, surrendered on September 6. As international troops withdrew from the country and foreign evacuations came to a close, the Taliban announced the composition of an interim cabinet, headed by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a foreign minister during the previous Taliban rule, who has been under UN sanctions since 2001.