Gov’t says no plans to deploy troops to Afghanistan

China’s defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian 

China yesterday denied reports that it plans to deploy troops to Afghanistan, saying the neighbors are engaged merely in “normal military and security cooperation.” Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian said reports in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper and elsewhere that hundreds of People’s Liberation Army soldiers are to man a base in eastern Afghanistan are “simply not true.”

China shares a narrow border with Afghanistan in the remote Wakhan corridor region and is wary of the country’s violence and chronic instability overflowing into its restless Xinjiang region. However, Wu said China, like other nations, is helping Afghanistan increase its defense capabilities, particularly in the area of counterterrorism.

Afghanistan’s ambassador to China, Janan Mosazai, said this week that Beijing is helping Afghanistan set up a mountain brigade to bolster counterterrorism operations, but that no Chinese troops would be stationed in the country. “While the Afghan government appreciates this Chinese assistance and our two militaries are working in close coordination on utilizing this assistance, there will be no Chinese military personnel of any kind involved in this process on Afghan soil,” Mosazai said.

China has sought to increase its presence in Afghanistan, including in dialogue with the Taliban, after 17 years of Western involvement that has left the country still at war.

Along with Pakistan, Iran and Russia, it is gaining a growing influence even as the United States spends billions of dollars covering much of the $6.5 billion spent annually to support the Afghan National Security Forces, which are struggling to contain an energized Taliban.

Despite the denials of Chinese military activity in the area, unconfirmed reports have shown what appear to be Chinese military vehicles operating in the Wakhan corridor, which lies in the shadow of the Hindu Kush mountains with Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south. AP