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Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a meeting in late July
Photo: Li Ran / AP
After the Taliban's conquest of Kabul, China agreed to "friendly relations" with the new rulers in Afghanistan.
"China respects the right of the Afghan people to decide their own fate independently and is ready to (...) maintain friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan," said Foreign Office spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
China and Afghanistan share a 76-kilometer border.
An end to the war and the creation of peace are both the unanimous desire of the more than 30 million Afghans and the common expectation of the international community and the countries in the region, said Hua Chunying.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi received a Taliban delegation back in July.
Beijing fears that the Islamists' seizure of power may have repercussions on separatist efforts in the predominantly Muslim Uyghur region of Xinjiang in western China.
On the other hand, stability in the resource-rich neighboring country would open up new economic opportunities for China.
Lucrative natural resources are waiting
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and is heavily dependent on international aid.
The country has lucrative natural resources that are of interest to neighboring countries such as China and India, but the security situation has never been stable enough to allow mining.
The radical Islamic Taliban had taken almost all of the country's provincial capitals in the past week and a half.
Many had fallen to her without a fight.
On Sunday they took over the penultimate city still under government control, Jalalabad in the east of the country.
President Ashraf Ghani has left the country and local media reported that he had flown to Tajikistan.
A spokesman for the Taliban Politburo declared the war in Afghanistan over.
"The war in Afghanistan is over," said Taliban Politburo spokesman Mohammad Naeem to Al Jazeera.
"We assure everyone that we will keep citizens and diplomatic missions safe," he added.
muk / AFP
