China said peace talks between Afghanistan’s Taliban government and Pakistan were advancing, even as a deadly bombing in northwestern Pakistan highlighted how little room there is for error in the wider confrontation.
AP reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the consultation process was being steadily implemented and advanced after representatives from the two countries resumed talks in the western Chinese city of Urumqi. She said the three parties had reached consensus on a specific operating mode, including media coverage, though she did not provide further details. China has been mediating and promoting talks through multiple channels, the report says.
The diplomacy is taking place against a background of intense violence. Even as the talks restarted, police in Bannu said a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a police station, killing at least five people and wounding several others. That attack is a reminder that the conflict is not confined to negotiations tables; it continues to produce casualties while leaders talk.
The source says Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of providing safe haven to militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the TTP. Kabul denies backing the group. The fighting between the two sides escalated in February after Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Pakistan launched strikes in Kabul and several other areas, causing mostly civilian casualties. Pakistan said it targeted TTP hideouts but also described itself as being in open war with Afghanistan.
China’s role is important because it offers a venue that both sides appear willing to use. Mao said both countries attach importance to and welcome China’s mediation efforts and are willing to sit down again for talks. That matters in a relationship that has been strained by border insecurity, militant attacks and mutual suspicion over who is responsible for violence.
The report does not say the talks have solved those problems. It does say they are moving and that Beijing believes the process can still be kept alive. But the blast in Bannu shows why the process is fragile: even as diplomats look for a framework, local security remains unstable and the human cost of the conflict is still rising.
In practical terms, the source leaves readers with a narrow but important fact pattern. China is still mediating. Afghanistan and Pakistan are still talking. And the bombing in Bannu shows that any peace process will have to survive a very active cycle of violence before it can claim success.
