A day after both the Afghan government and US declined offers to attend, the Taliban has announced they have accepted Russia’s invitation to a multinational peace talks to be held next month in Moscow.
The Taliban issued a statement saying that their intention is to send a delegation lead by the head of their political office, which is based in Qatar. The US recently held talks with Taliban from that office.
The Taliban’s acceptance is a significant boost for the talks. Russia has reported inviting 12 nations to the talks, though as yet we don’t know which will be attending. Having the Taliban there will give the talks at least some meaning and credibility.
The Afghan government has said they want all talks to be one-on-one with the Taliban, and no external countries involved. The Taliban, by contrast, has said they believe they need assurances from other countries, particularly the US, and don’t think talks with the Afghan government by itself would be particularly meaningful.
I wonder why Russia even bothers, since every time it tries to ease a situation it is vilified and has no “partners” among those that most need to take heed of commonsense.
Somebody has to take the high ground. And the rest of the world notices, which means the rest of the world increasingly looks east for leadership. The Russian strategy has always been the long game. Eventually, the “partners” will come.
I agree. The long game has been in practice by Russia and China within the framework of Shamghai Cooperation Organization. Applying the priciple of long game allowed for consolidation of Central Asian political and economic space, and the practice has expanded. Rarely anybody noticed the progress, hoping “anytime now” the undeclared alliance would break for this or other reason. Not only that it has not happened, but the strength of the new principles has shown reselient in the face of pressure. This is a division of labor, plain and simple. Russia —- forever the enemy of Western secularism, enlightement and supremacism, is a perfect lead in opening up the question of global order under the mantra of Western “values”. And the more Russia is vilified, the easier it is for Rusdia to take independent stand. The entry of Russia militarily into the Middle East cauldron, opened the entirely new stage in power diplomacy. It is completely natural that these processes are slow and methodical. They must be. The objective is not to run roughshod over the complex, intricate interests of historic local grievances, but to acknowledge them, separate them from exploitative interests of various powers that made promises to them just to use snd abuse them. The objective is to help all the traditional ties that bind people by traditions, religion, blood and soil, to find their place amongst others. And help them overcome hurdles and depravity of conflict on the path to stable peace. Avtall order, but the only way to stop divide and impera methods employed by the West against the rest of mankind. Look at the strategies in expanding membership. Taking into permanent membership simultaneously India and Pakistan — is a clue on how behind the scenes and away from prying eyes the convergence of interests on the subcontinent will occur. Same with Azerbaijan and Armenia. Turkey and Iran are by far more important in Eurasian space then commercial Belt and Road infrastructure. Both are civilizations with historic roots in region, and can help to strenghten cultures and traditions they have historic ties to. Far from suppresing cultures, the ibjective is to bring them back to assert themselves in shaping the sustainable blend of economic and cultural interests. Russia has a long history in integrating various cultures into their Empire without attempting to erase them. The first ever organization of Islamic cultures if Russia was founded back in 19th century, at the time Europe was in the hay day of “civilizing” natives around the world. Today, out of Russia’s 91 administrative units, 22 are republics. This level of administrative autonomy alliws for sizeable minorities to use their language as official along with Russian. Allows for their religions to be given status of other major religions. Example is the republic of Tuva, with shamanism bring one of the official religions. Speaking of Western primitivism — in spite of the vast presence of nations in Russia that bear vast similarities with American natives, our academia is mum about it? What do we have to fear? Why not allow for the study of native cultures and languages? It is as of our global lovers of diversity are only interested in the political diversity they can exploit. China is in fact learning from Russia in taking its many nationalities and languages, giving them culturall recognition they never had before, while simultaneously linking them all into a cohesive nation . New technologies help people connect, and the connecting is positive for as long as nobody spreads the seeds of divisions through villifying some and telling others they are victims. This is why Russia is such a threat.
And this is why Taliban is miving into Eurasian orbit. And, lets not kid ourselves. Afghan government is on board, just cannot go against US orders. After all, Afghan government is a member of SCO on observer level, and is part and parcel of this long game. It will take a while for US to figure out that it is becoming the fifth wheel.