Three Muslim-majority South and central Asian countries have joined a military alliance with China to counter Islamist militancy, officials said on Thursday.
He said it was a move that could challenge long-standing U.S. dominance in the region.
Military leaders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan gathered in the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang on Wednesday to announce the formation of the four-member alliance, the Pakistani army said.
Known as the Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism, the alliance is meant to bring together member states in areas of counter-terrorism and intelligence, the Pakistani army added.
Pakistan and Afghanistan, both close U.S. allies in the war on terror, have faced violence from Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban for more than a decade.
Tajikistan has also been the victim of Islamist militancy.
China has been battling an ethnic minority group of Islamist militants in its Muslim-dominant, oil-rich region of Xinjiang near the country’s border with Pakistan.
“That’s what might have brought all these nations together,” said Talat Masood, a former Pakistani army general and security analyst.
The new alliance emerged amid reports that the relationship between the U.S. and the powerful Pakistani military was becoming frayed and that Beijing was seeking a direct role in the reconciliation process between the Kabul administration and Taliban insurgents.
“This is how the world operates.
“Obviously; the Chinese want to challenge American hegemony in the region and this looks their stamp of authority on some sensitive things,” Masood said. (dpa/NAN)