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Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Strikes Undermine China’s Diplomatic Push For Peace

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By Daud Khattak
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 13, 2026

Fresh Pakistani jet and drone strikes targeting Kabul and the Kandahar, Paktika, and Paktia provinces in Afghanistan have cast a shadow over China’s shuttle-diplomacy efforts to restore peace between Pakistan and the Taliban.

There has been no official confirmation from the Pakistani government, but Taliban authorities say four civilians were killed and 15 injured in the strikes on the morning of March 13. A Taliban source told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that an oil depot was also hit in the latest air strikes.

The Afghan Taliban responded with drone strikes in the northwestern Pakistani city of Kohat on March 13, injuring two civilians, sources told Radio Mashaal.

The Afghan Taliban said that it hit a Pakistani military base in Kohat, a garrison town in Pakistan’s northwest near the Afghan border.

Chinese Peace Efforts

The fresh Pakistani attacks come on the heels of China’s intensive shuttle diplomacy efforts to restore normalcy along the 2,600-kilometer Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

In the latest move, China’s special envoy on Afghan affairs, Yue Xiaoyong, held meetings with Taliban and Pakistani officials “to promote dialogue and reconciliation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on March 12.

In a post on X, Jian also said that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar urging the need to prevent further escalation and calling on the two countries to “return to negotiations as soon as possible.” On March 12, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, posted on X about a “detailed meeting” with his Chinese counterpart, Xiaoyong, who had arrived from Kabul in Islamabad that morning.

Sadiq said they “discussed threats posed by terrorist groups such as TTP [Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan] and ETIM [East Turkestan Islamic Movement] to Pakistan and China, respectively. Agreed on the need for collective efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability.”

A close neighbor of the two countries, China has invested billions of dollars in projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan to promote its presence in the region.

China has invested $65 billion in Pakistan under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

China has also signed agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars to develop Afghanistan’s mineral resources with both previous Afghan governments and the current Taliban authorities.

Attacks On Chinese Workers

However, recent attacks on Chinese workers in Tajikistan, close to the Afghan border, as well as in Pakistan’s Sindh and Balochistan provinces, have heightened security risks for Chinese personnel, threatening investments in the region.

Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, an author and China-Pakistan expert based in Islamabad, told RFE/RL that the expansion of the Afghan-Pakistani conflict in the region does not serve Beijing’s interests.

“China has concerns about the presence of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in the region, and the recent attacks on Chinese workers in Tajikistan have further heightened those concerns,” he added.

The latest Chinese efforts to ease tensions in the region come as previous mediators, such as Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, are dealing with the fallout from the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran.

Pakistani authorities say that as long as the Taliban continues to host the TTP and other “terrorist groups” that carry out attacks inside Pakistan, then its military will continue cross-border operations.

The Afghan Taliban has said it will not allow Afghan soil to be used by groups targeting other countries.

Several Pakistani officials welcomed the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021. And the Pakistani military and its powerful intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), have faced accusations of maintaining close ties with the Taliban during the militant group’s fight against US and NATO forces in the near-two-decades war.

Copyright (c) 2026. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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