Beijing, Sep 17: The United States and China are at deadlock over a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution to extend the world body’s political mission in Afghanistan, with Beijing flagging it will cast a veto in light of the fact that there is no reference to its worldwide Belt and Road framework venture, negotiators said on Monday.
An arranged vote by the 15-part Security Council to re-establish the mission, known as UNAMA, was postponed from Monday to Tuesday to take into account further dealings. The mission’s mandate expires on Tuesday. To pass, a resolution it needs nine votes in support and no vetoes by the US, France, China, Russia, and Britain.
In front of the deferment, negotiators said China was relied upon to veto a resolution- drafted by Germany and Indonesia – that didn’t reference the Belt and Road (BRI) project, according to Al-Jazeera. China’s UN mission didn’t promptly react to a request for input.
China was then wanting to propose a decision on a short draft resolution, known as a specialized “rollover”, to enable the mission to continue working, representatives said. In any case, they added that it could neglect to get the nine votes expected to pass in light of the fact that few gathering individuals were thinking about going without.
The UN mission, which was built up in 2002, is helping Afghanistan get ready for September 28 elections and is pushing for peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Talks between the US and the Taliban on a US military withdrawal self-destructed recently.
The UNAMA order is restored yearly by the UNSC. The resolutions in 2016, 2017 and 2018 all incorporated a reference inviting and encouraging endeavors like China’s Belt and Road activity to encourage trade and travel.
Yet, when it came time to broaden the resolution again in March, the US and other Western gathering individuals needed the language evacuated, starting a standoff with China. The board ended-up embracing a six-month specialized rollover to enable the mission to continue working.
Meanwhile, acting US envoy Jonathan Cohen lambasted Beijing for holding “the resolution hostage” by insisting “on making it about Chinese national political priorities rather than the people of Afghanistan.”
Last week, addressing a UNSC meeting on war-ravaged Afghan, he referred to the pertaining deadlock with China.
“We strongly believe this mandate is too important at this moment to have one Security Council member deny consensus for reasons having nothing to do with UNAMA,” Cohen said.
China’s ambassador to UN, Zhang Jun, didn’t mention the ongoing negotiations over the UNAMA resolution, though he added saying China was working with the Afghan officials in order to advance “the Belt and Road construction to actively support the Afghan rebuilding and its reintegration into the regional economic development”.