Chinese premier presents 5-point proposal for a stable Afghanistan
Print Edition
CHINA pledged to provide non-reimbursable assistance of 500 million yuan (US$81.8 million) to Afghanistan this year at the beginning of an international meeting in Beijing yesterday.
Over the next three years, it will provide 1.5 billion yuan to help the country train 3,000 people and provide 500 scholarships, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said when he addressed the opening ceremony of the 4th ministerial conference of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan.
“Firm support for Afghanistan’s peaceful reconstruction should be concrete action instead of verbal commitment,” the premier said.
He pledged to strengthen bilateral cooperation in areas such as infrastructure construction, agriculture, water conservation and mineral resources exploitation.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will implement assistance and training plans, and try to open training courses on anti-terrorism, drug control and disaster management.
China will have a broader and deepened participation in cooperation under the framework of the Istanbul Process, and promote Afghanistan-related regional cooperation, Wang said.
Inaugurated in 2011, the Istanbul Process is the only Afghanistan-related cooperation mechanism led by regional countries.
To promote result-oriented cooperation through practical means, the Istanbul Process has identified a number of confidence building measures in a number of areas.
These included anti-terrorism, drug control, disaster management, trade and investment opportunity, regional infrastructure construction and education.
Wang said 15 cooperation programs in those areas had been conducted over the past year, with good results.
Sixty-four more priority programs were identified at the conference to help Afghanistan develop its national governance, self-development, public security and defense, Wang said.
Wang said that realizing political reconciliation as soon as possible was of vital importance to its transition process.
He hoped all political parties in Afghanistan would work toward the realization of inclusive political reconciliation through dialogue and negotiation.
The Chines premier presented a 5-point proposal that included an insistence on self-governance of the Afghan people, promoting political reconciliation among different Afghan political parties, speeding up economic reconstruction and strengthening external support.
The international community should respect Afghanistan’s sovereignty, not interfere in its internal affairs and support its efforts to realize security and stability, Li said.
He called on the country’s political parties to lay aside former enmity and join the reconciliation process.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, on his first tour to China since taking office in September, agreed with Li’s proposals and said the Istanbul Process would lay the foundations for an early solution to the Afghan issue as well as the region’s peace and stability.
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