China will not be the first to recognise Taliban government

China will not take the lead in recognising Afghanistan’s Taliban government and will only do so in a concerted move with Pakistan, Russia and Iran, an expert familiar with China’s foreign policy considerations told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August and set up an interim government in September with old guard Islamists in top posts. No country has formally recognised the Taliban government though China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, met members of the interim government in Qatar this week.

“Things will be different when the four countries of China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran arrive at a consensus on this. We will not be the first,” said Hu Shisheng, a South Asian expert at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICR), the official think-tank of China’s national security apparatus.

Speaking at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a security forum organised by an official think-tank of the military to promote China’s views on security, Hu gave a rare insight into China’s calculations on Afghanistan.