Chinese foothold in Afghanistan is a ‘very serious problem’

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching says a Chinese foothold in Afghanistan will be a “very serious problem”.

It comes after a meeting between the Taliban’s deputy prime minister and China’s foreign minister in Qatar in which the communist power pledged to help rebuild Afghanistan.

“And of course, that’s a very complex geopolitical region,” Ms Kitching told Sky News host Paul Murray.

“I mean one of the reasons is … China wants to have Afghanistan there so that they can negate India’s influence.

“And obviously China’s been a long-term ally of Pakistan as well – Pakistan and India have many differences.

“India is one of our Quad partners, we want India to do well, it’s a democracy, and we don’t really want that imbalance where China has Afghanistan on the other side of India as well as Pakistan.”