China said Tuesday it would not send any troops to Afghanistan — rejecting recent speculation that Beijing might support the international coalition there.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told New York”s Council on Foreign Relations on Friday that China could send troops because there was a global consensus that Afghanistan is the “the front line” in the battle against terrorism.
“I think we”ve got to, we”ve got to look at that as a possibility for the future,” Brown said in answer to an audience question on the possibility of a Chinese deployment.
However, in a statement seen Tuesday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry”s Web site, spokesman Qin Gang said there had been no change to Beijing”s approach to Afghanistan — or to its policy of sending forces abroad only under United Nations Security Council mandates.
The issue of China sending troops to Afghanistan “simply doesn”t exist,” Qin said.
As one of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, China has grown increasingly active in the body”s peacekeeping efforts, having deployed more than 10,000 troops, mainly from engineering companies, to U.N. missions from Cambodia to Haiti to Sudan.
In contrast, the 41-nation coalition helping maintain Afghan security operates under NATO command. Britain has 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, mainly in the violent southern province of Helmand. The U.S. has a total of around 32,000 troops in the country.
