Chinese FM meets with Afghan president, Pakistani PM on Afghan peace process

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated here Wednesday the determination of the threeir countries to work for Afghanistan's peace process.

At his meeting with President Ghani, Wang said China, as a reliable friend and close neighbor, will continue to support Afghanistan's peace process and the restart of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban at an early date.

"China is willing to participate in the reconstruction in Afghanistan and earnestly carry out its assistance to Afghanistan to help improve the people's livelihood" while helping the Central Asian country in human resources training, drawing plans for infrastructure development and promoting interconnectivity, Wang said.

China welcomes Afghanistan to join the effort to implement the Belt and Road initiative, attaches importance to Afghanistan's desire to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and support Chinese companies to cooperate with Afghanistan in big projects, he added.

Ghani thanked China for respecting his country's independence and sovereignty and supporting Afghanistan's efforts for peace, reconciliation and reconstruction.

He said that Afghanistan, as a major country along the ancient Silk Road, has an urgent desire to join China's efforts to carry out the Belt and Road initiative.

Afghanistan is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in the fields of infrastructure construction, water conservancy and energy, Ghani said, adding that his country hopes to join the AIIB at an early date.

In a separate meeting, both Wang and Prime Minister Sharif agreed that Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in April this year lifted the China-Pakistan relationship to an all-weather strategic partnership of cooperation that makes clear the development orientation of bilateral relations.

The China-Pakistan economic corridor is so far the largest comprehensive cooperation project, which reflects "China attaches great importance to Sino-Pakistani relations," Wang said.

Sharif said the construction of the economic corridor will significantly ease the shortage of electricity in Pakistan and help break the bottleneck in the country's development.

In response, Wang expressed belief that under the joint efforts of the two countries, the economic corridor project will "bring about important and positive changes" in Pakistan.

Wang's separate meetings with Ghani and Sharif took place on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of foreign ministers on the Istanbul Process held in the Pakistani capital city.

Wang congratulated Pakistan on the convening of the foreign ministers' meeting, saying Pakistan played a "leading role" in holding the meeting that is aimed at boosting the peace process in Afghanistan at a "critical moment" in the development of situation in the Central Asian country.

"China appreciates Pakistan's effort to devote to improving relations with Afghanistan and is willing to work with Pakistan to contribute to Afghanistan's reconciliation and peace process," Wang said.

Sharif said Pakistan is ready to carry out all the agreements signed with China to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Pakistan appreciates China's support to his country's sponsorship of the foreign ministers' meeting and will join hands with China to boost Afghanistan's peace, reconciliation and reconstruction process, he added. Enditem