US-China Standoff on Who Runs the Afghanistan File at UN Signals Greater Tensions Ahead 

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Just Security, 14 February 2025

A diplomatic row is underway between the US and Chinaiover who should act as Security Council “penholder” for resolutions on Afghanistan and “has escalated in recent weeks since the Trump administration took over.”

In 2024, Japan took on the role (having held it jointly with the United Arab Emirates in 2023). With Japan ending its two-year term, a number of elected members made a pitch to take over, with Pakistan and South Korea making the most sustained bids. Then China threw in its hat, (…) indicating that it was open to working on the file with either Pakistan or South Korea or both. (…) Pakistan has been adamant that it has a right to be penholder on the file given its proximity to, and security concerns over, Afghanistan.

China’s diplomats have tried to reassure other council members that they will handle it responsibly (…). (In March 2022, when the Security Council was debating the future of UNAMA in parallel with angry debates over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chinese diplomats quietly warned their Russian counterparts not to conflate the two issues and use their veto over Afghanistan.) The United States has, however, firmly opposed China’s pitch, both under the Biden administration and now under President Donald Trump. (…)

This dispute has come to a head over the last two weeks, after China and Pakistan circulated a draft resolution rolling over UNAMA’s mandate for a year. The United States and South Korea responded with an alternative resolution of their own. (…) The debate between the two sides is not especially substantive. It is clear that what is at stake is not what the UNAMA mandate says, but who has control over the text. 

Diplomats say that they will now try to reconcile the two texts, but there is no sign of either set of claimants to the pen backing down. (…) Until now, world powers have worked together to a remarkable degree on Afghanistan issues because they have shared interests in preventing terrorism, curbing migration, and protecting regional stability. (…) This diplomatic game is obscuring the question of how the UN can best engage with Afghanistan.