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China Gives “Scheduling Reasons” for its Absence at the NSA Meet

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NEW DELHI, Nov 9: China, which has turned down India’s invitation to attend a meeting of the National Security Advisers of various countries on Afghanistan, has forwarded the “scheduling reasons” as the cause for its absence in the meet.  China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that “scheduling reasons” were behind Beijing giving a miss to the regional security dialogue on Afghanistan to be chaired by the Indian NSA Ajit Doval on Wednesday. The NSAs of Russia, Iran and five Central Asian nations are participating in the meet. Pakistan had said earlier that it would not attend the meet hosted by India.

Asked about China’s absence, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said it was “inconvenient for China to attend the meeting due to scheduling reasons.” “We have already given our reply to the Indian side,” he added, without elaborating further on the meet.

While both top Chinese diplomat and Politburo member Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi are this week attending an annual four-day meeting of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee in Beijing, which opened on Monday, the Foreign Ministry did not say why other top security officials were not attending the meeting in their stead, which both sides had discussed.

The Ministry of External Affairs said Wednesday’s “high-level dialogue will review and deliberate upon measures to address relevant security challenges and support the people of Afghanistan in promoting peace, security and stability.”

Pakistan and China, which will not be present, have increasingly been aligning their strategies and diplomacy on the Afghan issue. The Chinese Foreign Minister in September had virtually addressed the “first meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighbouring Countries of Afghanistan” hosted by his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi and attended by officials from Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

He also spoke at the second meeting held on October 27 and hosted by Iran, which was also attended by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. China will host the third round of this new mechanism early next year.

(Manas Dasgupta)