Afghanistan crisis live updates: 'Afghan evacuee flights halted from two key bases'

China is eyeing the former US airbase of Bagram in Afghanistan in order to expand its influence in the region and embarrass America. Paul D Shinkman, writing in US News said that China has secured friendly relations with the new Taliban government in Afghanistan and is now considering new ways to expand influence and embarrass the US. China is considering deploying military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram airfield, perhaps the single-most prominent symbol of the 20-year US military presence in Afghanistan.

China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that China is ready to maintain communication with the new government and leader in Afghanistan. Wang made the comment at a daily briefing in Beijing when asked if China would recognize the new government, whose leaders were named on Tuesday. China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, Wang said.

The Americans trying to evacuate hundreds of Afghans and American citizens - including one Afghan who worked as a US military translator and says he is anticipating his beheading by the Taliban - pleaded for action from the Biden administration to get the would-be evacuees aboard charter flights that are standing by to fly them from Afghanistan. “Unfortunately we are left behind now," the former translator said quietly in the pre-dawn darkness Wednesday in Afghanistan. “No one heard our voice.” The man, whose identity The Associated Press withheld for his security, said he was running out of money to keep his family housed in a hotel in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, after waiting a week for Taliban permission for the chartered evacuation flights to leave the airport there.

The high-level meeting between India and Russia on the situation in Afghanistan is underway after the Taliban takeover and the formation of a new caretaker government of the "Islamic Emirate" in the war-torn country. The India-Russia inter-governmental consultations on Afghanistan were led by the two NSA's - Ajit Doval and his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev that also included representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Defence and security agencies. This was a follow-up meeting of the two countries after the telephonic talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin in August.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he was certain China would try to work out an arrangement with the Taliban after the Islamic insurgents seized power in Afghanistan on August 15. Asked if he was worried that China would fund the group, which is sanctioned under US law, Biden told reporters, "China has a real problem with the Taliban. So they're going to try to work out some arrangement with the Taliban, I'm sure. As does Pakistan, as does Russia, as does Iran. They're all trying to figure out what do they do now."

India and Russia will hold high-level intergovernmental discussions on the situation in Afghanistan, the government announced on Tuesday. At the invitation of national security adviser Ajit Doval, his counterpart and the secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation Nikolay Patrushev will be visiting India for the meeting on September 7-8, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Doval is expected to underscore India’s concerns about the activities of Pakistan-based and India-oriented terror groups like LeT and JeM in Afghanistan. India believes Moscow can play a key role in ensuring Afghanistan isn’t used by such groups to target other countries in the region.

The Taliban on Tuesday announced a 33-member team for an interim government that would be headed by Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a founding member of the movement who had also been foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the outfit’s previous 1996-2001 regime in Afghanistan. Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar whose negotiations with the US finally led to the latter’s pullout last month will be his deputy.