| by B.Raman
( September 24, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The
internal security services of China and Afghanistan signed a formal agreement
at Kabul on September 22, 2012, to have a liaison relationship between them.
The agreement, inter alia, provides for exchange of security-related
intelligence, counter-terrorism co-operation and training of Afghan police
officers by China.
2. The agreement was signed by officials of the two
countries during an unannounced four-hour hush-hush visit to Kabul by Mr.Zhou
Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist
Party of China (CPC) , who is also the Minister for Public Security. The
Ministry of Public Security is responsible for internal intelligence and
security. In addition, it also supervises the work of the police and the
criminal justice system all over China. Counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency
and counter-intelligence are among its responsibilities. The external
intelligence service of China is called the Ministry of State Security.
3. Officials in charge of internal security and
counter-terrorism in the two countries have been in informal touch with each
other in the framework of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), of
which Afghanistan is an observer. An agreement to formalise and upgrade this
relationship was taken during a visit of
President Hamid Karzai to Beijing in June
to attend an SCO summit.
4. The formal establishment of a liaison relationship
would enable the two services to exchange intelligence regarding the activities
of the extremist organisations of the Xinjiang province of China and the
Central Asian Republics.
5. There has been close co-operation among the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group (also from Uzbekistan),the
Islamic Movement of East Turkestan ( of Xinjiang) and Al Qaeda. All these
organisations have their command and control centres in North Waziristan in the
Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and their terrorists
often transit through Afghan territory on their way to Xinjiang in China and
the Central Asian Republics.
6. While the level of extremist activity by the Uighurs
in the Xinjiang province of China from their sanctuaries in North Waziristan
has remained high, there has been a decrease in the activities of the Uzbek
groups and Al Qaeda in the CARs. Despite this, Chinese concerns over the
remnants of the Uzbek groups and Al Qaeda operating from Pakistani territory
remain high due to the threats that they could pose to energy supplies from the
CARs through pipelines to China.
7.While Chinese officials outwardly speak highly of the
co-operation from the Pakistani intelligence for dealing with threats from
these groups, they have not been quite satisfied in reality. All terrorist
incidents in Xinjiang have had a Pakistani link either in the form of training,
or sanctuaries or recruitment.
8.Recently, the Pakistan Government has terminated the
contract given by it to a Singapore company for the running of the Gwadar port
on the Mekran coast in Balochistan constructed with Chinese assistance. This
port, which was meant to meet the external trade requirements of Western China,
Afghanistan and the CARs, in addition to that of Pakistan, has not got going
due to various teething troubles. There have been reports in sections of the
Pakistani media that Islamabad has been pressing a Chinese company to take over
the responsibility for the running of the Gwadar port.
9. While the port is very well equipped from the point of
view of modern installations, its security cover is weak due to the disturbed
situation in Balochistan and the activities of anti-Beijing Uighur and Uzbek
elements in that area. If the Chinese take over the responsibility for the
maintenance of the port, its security will be a matter of major concern to
them. Since the co-operation of the Pakistani intelligence agencies may not be
satisfactory in this regard, they may have to depend on the Afghan intelligence
services for the necessary flow of intelligence.
10. It is interesting and significant that Mr.Zhou flew
secretly to Kabul after a two-day visit to Singapore where considerable
information will be available with the local port management experts regarding
the kind of difficulties the Singapore company faced in Gwadar before it
decided to pull out. Mr.Zhou seems to have gone directly to Kabul from
Singapore and not through Pakistan. It is not known whether he stopped over in
Pakistan on his way back.
11. According to media reports, during the talks in Kabul
Mr.Zhou signed agreements on increased security and economic cooperation,
including a deal to help “train, fund and equip the Afghan police”. The Xinhua
news agency of China quoted him as saying as follows: “It is in line with the
fundamental interests of the two nations for China and Afghanistan to
strengthen a strategic and cooperative partnership which is also conducive to
regional peace, stability and development. “
12. No details regarding the economic co-operation
agreement signed during the visit are available. The Chinese state-owned company called the China Metallurgical Group
(MCC) operates a $3 billion copper mine
in the eastern Logar province. The project was expected to go into production
in 2013, but there has reportedly been a delay due to security reasons.
13. This is the first time since 1966 that a senior
Chinese Party and Government leader has visited Kabul. In 1966, then President
Liu Shaoqi visited Kabul.
(The writer is
Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
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