China Says US Should Consider Putin's Remarks About 'Zero Result, If Not Negative' in Afghanistan

Commenting on the decision to withdraw troops from the country, US President Joe Biden claimed that "nation-building" was never a goal of the Afghanistan war, despite Washington and other NATO countries going to great lengths in a bid to strengthen the government in Kabul.

Washington should consider the remarks of Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the effectiveness of NATO's war in Afghanistan, draw its own conclusions, and not repeat such mistakes in the future, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin has said.

"The result is sheer tragedies, sheer losses, both for those who were doing that, the US, and more so for the people who live in Afghanistan. A zero result, if not negative", Putin said on 1 September.

Wenbin added that no universal model of democracy exists in the world and expressed an opinion that every country has the right to find its own way of development that corresponds with national peculiarities and realities.

He noted that the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban* seized power even before NATO troops had the chance to fully evacuate from the country, demonstrates the ineffectiveness of attempts to "transplant" or impose a democratic model of government from the outside. Wenbin added that such attempts only result in chaos, instability, and failure to install a proper democratic government.

"Democracy is a value shared by all mankind instead of a privilege of certain countries. There is no 'leader of democracy' in the world. No country has the right to lecture others on democracy. Touting the 'alliance of democracies' and hyping up the narrative of 'democracy versus authoritarianism' is in essence attacking others that are different under the banner of democracy. This is hegemony in the guise of democracy", Wenbin said.

The diplomat further expressed hope that the US will reflect on its fiasco in Afghanistan and cease the practice of sowing discord and confrontation in the countries around the world under the pretext of championing human rights. Washington earlier promised that it wouldn't stop pursuing and defending human rights in foreign countries, but would do so without military intervention, using diplomatic and economic pressure instead.

Wenbin earlier called on the international community to investigate alleged war crimes committed by the US and NATO over the 20-year-long deployment in Afghanistan. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is reviewing one case against the actions of the US military in the country, but it is unclear whether the ICC case will proceed since the US did not ratify its charter. A leak published by WikiLeaks about American war logs from Afghanistan in 2010 revealed that several hundred cases of civilian casualties at the hands of the US military had not been properly reported at the time.

*Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia