The Pulse | Diplomacy | South Asia

Why Afghanistan’s Neighbors Have Not Backed Pakistan’s Strikes on the Taliban

China, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan are less exposed to the impact of cross-border terrorism – and less willing to risk smooth relations with Kabul over the issue.

The eighth meeting of the Moscow Format consultations on Afghanistan in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 5, 2026.

On October 5, Moscow hosted the eighth meeting of the special representatives and senior officials from regional countries for the Moscow Format to discuss political and economic relations with Afghanistan and counterterrorism and counter-narcotics cooperation. The Moscow Format includes Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

But the meeting failed to adopt a joint statement because the Pakistani and Afghan delegates disagreed over the language on terrorism. The Taliban objected to the frequent mention of terrorism in reference to Afghanistan. 

Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said the Afghan delegates accepted similar language last year. He believed that the changed relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan might have caused Kabul’s objection this time.

The meeting was held only a week after the most recent confrontation between Islamabad and Kabul. On September 18 and 26, Pakistan suffered deadly terrorist attacks in its northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, that together killed about 44 people and injured about 138. Pakistan responded with airstrikes on different targets in Afghanistan that it believes were the training camps and hideouts of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its associated factions responsible for the cross-border attacks.

At the Moscow summit, Pakistan’s delegation said the Taliban were complicit in those attacks in Pakistan because the terrorist groups were operating on Afghan soil with impunity. The Taliban said Pakistan was using military aggression in violation of international law for an issue that could be resolved through political negotiations.

The Moscow Format meeting failed to bridge these differences enough to allow for a joint communique. What’s noteworthy is that other countries that share borders with Afghanistan – such as China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – did not use their diplomatic capital to reach an understanding on language that included everyone’s concerns.

Afghanistan’s neighbors have different levels of concern about militancy there. Their strategies, especially on counterterrorism, are a function of the nature of their border with Afghanistan, the extent of the threat from militant groups on Afghan soil, and the Taliban’s scale of cooperation regarding those groups. From their perspective, military force is not the most effective solution to address the issue.

China shares a border of only about 92 kilometers with Afghanistan, high in the Wakhan Corridor, marked by rough terrain and the nearly 5,000-meter high Wakhjir Pass. In terms of a terrorist presence in Afghanistan, Beijing considers the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) its main concern and has pressed the Taliban to act against the group. The Taliban have reportedly relocated ETIM fighters away from the border, and they now have a dispersed presence. Therefore, the immediate cross-border threat to China is smaller, and any movement across the pass is easy to detect. 

Uzbekistan similarly shares a short border of 144 kilometers with Afghanistan, almost entirely along the Amu Darya. Regular cross-border movement is concentrated at the closely guarded Termez-Hairatan road and rail crossing. But the militant groups in Afghanistan that concern Tashkent have shown only a limited capacity for........

© The Diplomat