WORLD NEWS | Pakistan, China agree to extend CPEC to Afghanistan; emphasizes fight against terrorism

ISLAMABAD, May 9 (PTI) — Pakistan, China and Afghanistan have agreed to forge closer economic ties by extending the Beijing-backed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan to capitalize on the country’s status as a regional connectivity hub. potential.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and Afghan Taliban-appointed Acting Foreign Minister Maulavi Amir Khan Muttaqi held the fifth China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers Dialogue. Also stressed the need to prevent any group from using their power to target the territory of any country for terrorist activities.

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that the ministers held in-depth talks on various issues and reached consensus on good-neighborly friendship, mutual trust, security cooperation, anti-terrorism, connectivity, and trade and investment.

The three countries reaffirmed their determination to fully realize Afghanistan’s potential as a regional connectivity hub and reaffirmed their “commitment to advancing trilateral cooperation under the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative to jointly extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan,” according to a joint statement released on Monday, 5 Two days after the meeting here on 6 June.

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The $60 billion CPEC aims to link the port of Gwadar in Pakistan’s Balochistan province to China’s Xinjiang province. India opposes CPEC as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is officially considered the flagship project of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – a darling of President Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi said that this is the first time the foreign ministers of the three countries have held a dialogue since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, marking the restart of the mechanism.

Wang Yi quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Qin as saying that China stated that the three countries can jointly set an example for neighboring countries to cooperate on hot-spot issues and promote regional stability and prosperity.

The three foreign ministers highlighted the importance of existing projects, including CASA-1000, TAPI, Trans-Afghan Railway, etc., to enhance regional connectivity and ensure economic development and prosperity for the people of the region.

While agreeing to strengthen transit trade at Gwadar Port, the three parties emphasized the need to promote the “hard connectivity” of infrastructure and the “soft connectivity” of normative standards, while further exploring measures to facilitate personnel exchanges and trade activities in the three places. three countries.

In the statement, they emphasized the need to prohibit any individual, group or political party, including the Taliban Movement of Pakistan (TTP) and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a terrorist organization operating in China’s Xinjiang region, from using the territories of the three countries to harm and threaten Regional security and interests.

They also stressed that interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs should be avoided and the peace, stability and reconstruction of Afghanistan should be promoted.

The three parties reaffirmed the need to address security challenges that pose serious threats to regional and global security and directly affect the stability and economic prosperity of the entire region.

The Ministers emphasized the importance of exploring a realistic path towards economic recovery in Afghanistan, and agreed to consider further support for Afghanistan’s reconstruction and explore the possibility of triangular investment for industrialization and job creation.

They also stressed the importance of continued and urgent humanitarian support to the Afghan people, emphasizing that Afghanistan must remain decoupled from any political situation.

The three parties reiterated that they will continue to cooperate in areas of common concern such as economic development, capacity building, and improvement of people’s livelihood, and agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas such as agriculture, trade, energy, capacity building, and border management.

The three countries also urged the international community to help Afghanistan effectively combat drug cultivation, develop alternative crops, and enhance its capacity for independent and sustainable development. They called on relevant countries to lift unilateral sanctions against Kabul, return overseas assets, benefit the Afghan people, and create opportunities for Afghan economic development and prosperity.

The three parties emphasized that they will continue to promote the tripartite cooperation mechanism including the Director-level Pragmatic Cooperation Dialogue, and build a closer good-neighborly and friendly partnership.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)