Senior officials from the Pakistani army and Afghan government will be holding open peace talks with the Taliban, marking the first joint effort towards a diplomatic by the two countries simultaneously. Ashraf Ghani’s government is under fire by the new Parliament for negotiating with Pakistan to the degree it has – even former President Hamid Karzai has chimed in condemning the joint efforts. Other countries have reacted positively, including China, who has offered to broker the talks as a “neutral” third party.

Afghan lawmakers say that most who are not members of Ghani’s inner circle are suspicious of Pakistan’s role in the Taliban peace talks. Under Karzai, Afghanistan long accused Pakistan of using the Taliban to push its own agenda. Ghani’s outreach to Islamabad has caused concern among those who still point to Pakistan and the ISI as the source of the Taliban’s support and funding.

Follow us on Twitter: @SteppeDispatch

News Briefs:

• Germany’s ambassador to the US Peter Wittig has revealed that US President Barack Obama pledged last month not to send lethal aid to Ukraine, citing a high level discussion between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Obama to “give some space for those diplomatic and political efforts that were underway.” This revelation is likely to anger many in the legislative branch who have lobbied hard for shoring up equipment and support to Kiev’s military.

• The Chinese government reports that Muslim Uighurs have traveled overseas to fight with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and may return to foment rebellion in Xinjiang province. Statements of authorities in the western province have been consistently highlighting their crackdown on Uighur separatist movements as “Islamist” and attempting to garner international support and aid for these efforts that have engaged in similar commitments.

• Kazakhstan has imprisoned an activist who blogged against Russian Proton rocket launches at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The blogger was detained and charged with a hate crime and inciting social hatred. Proton rockets have exploded in failed launches several times in recent years contaminating the area with toxic fuel to which activists have attributed a large number of ill effects.

• China has announced it will construct an oil refinery in south Tajikistan in the coming years through Dong Ying Heli Investment and Development Corporation. Thus far, equipment has been purchased on the order of $25 million, according to government sources. This is an extension of an agreement last October and the project will consist of two stages where crude will be processed from oil exporting countries like Russia.

• In Mongolia, negotiations on the largest coking coal deposit in the world at Tavan Tolgoi have stalled due to the ongoing dispute between Rio Tinto and the government on a copper mining project. Last year, China’s Shenhua Energy formed a consortium with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation to bid for the Tavan Tolgoi contract and won out over the American Peabody Energy. It is unclear from what issues the disagreements stem, most have merely noted that the negotiations with Shenhua were due to completed before Mongolia’s lunar new year in February. Observers are noting the substantial debts of the Mongolian company in charge of the project to China’s Chalco Group, which could be the source of a short and long term financing issue.