Editor's note: Hamzah Rifaat Hussain, a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and former assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, is a TV anchor at Indus News in Pakistan. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The third Moscow Format meeting on Afghanistan 2021 has provided a blueprint to revive Afghanistan by encapsulating collective wisdom from regional countries in East, Central, South and North Asia. The innovative ideas and a commitment to multilateralism are obviously different from the pressure tactics exerted by American foreign policy in Afghanistan. The proposals put forth at the meeting can be translated into tangible gains for the country, region and international community.

Any solution to the Afghan quagmire can only take place through regional consensus, the facilitation of peace and strategic wisdom that is divorced from great power politics. This year's meeting resulted in a joint statement issued by China, Russia, Central Asian states, India and Pakistan, acknowledging the Taliban as the de facto governing authority in Afghanistan. Furthermore, emphasis was laid on peacefully engaging with the leadership while respecting the territorial sovereignty, independence and integrity of Afghanistan.

At the same time, there was no indication that any state was turning a blind eye to the Taliban's quest for international recognition. Each state considers it an inclusive and all representative government, which is the prerequisite for solving the current problem and achieving national reconciliation. These are important nuances that need to be taken into account while dealing with the Taliban government. A balanced approach toward engagement instead of outright isolationism needs to be pursued to better the Afghan people's situation.

The Moscow Format meeting also emphasized close cooperation between Russia and China to avert the abandonment of Afghanistan after a troublesome 20-year legacy left behind by the United States, which has brought malnutrition, famine, terrorism and extreme poverty to Afghanistan. Among the proposals tabled after a mutual consensus by all regional stakeholders, one is to convene a UN Donor Conference to provide unfettered provision of aid, which is critical for rebuilding infrastructure through a multilateral framework.

In retrospect, the absence of a collective imagination was hurting Afghanistan because it was at the receiving end of unilateral and conditional policies.

Before the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry, in close coordination with Chinese and Pakistani officials, spoke about providing humanitarian assistance to Kabul, with all stakeholders appreciating the Taliban's guarantee that Afghan soil will not be used to export transnational terrorism and urging it to pursue an amicable foreign policy with all of its neighbors. Swift and timely responses are needed to avert the scenarios mentioned in the United Nations Development Programme report, which predicts that a continuation of the status quo will result in 97 percent of the population descending into extreme poverty by mid-2022.

The absence of the United States in such a situation underlines what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described as escapist psychology and being irresponsible toward Afghan issues. For the Joe Biden administration, this was a ripe opportunity to participate in a regional platform for peace, where urgent dispensation of aid is needed to revive the Kabul economy. That has simply not happened, and even India, which is both a Quad member and a strategic partner of the United States, chose to participate, understanding that geopolitics must be shelved for a more stable neighborhood. All the states acknowledge that the vacuum left by the 20-year war legacy must not translate into immeasurable suffering for the Afghan people.

Hence, the new format has demonstrated that swift decision-making in the absence of political engineering alongside a hands-off approach in Afghanistan is definitely possible. Constructive engagement and proposals to convene a broad-based multilateral framework for dispensation of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan signify that the collective wisdom of the regional players in close geographical proximity to Kabul provides hope for the war-torn country.      

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