China and Pakistan have determined to launch “joint actions” in Afghanistan to cease the war-torn nation from turning into a “hotbed for terrorism” and drive out terrorist forces from there, the Chinese Foreign Ministry mentioned on Monday.
The determination was taken throughout a gathering between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi within the southwestern the Chinese metropolis of Chengdu on Saturday.
During the assembly, Wang and Qureshi “decided to launch joint actions on Afghan issue,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian instructed a media briefing right here.
Also, a press launch posted on the web site of the Chinese Foreign Ministry mentioned Wang in his talks with Qureshi “emphasised that as Afghanistan’s neighbours, China and Pakistan are directly impacted by the Afghan situation. It is necessary for the two countries to strengthen cooperation and respond to changes”.
This was “one important agenda during Qureshi’s visit to China,” mentioned the press launch titled ‘China and Pakistan Decide to Launch Joint Actions on Afghan Issue’.
“After in-depth communication, we decided to launch joint actions,” which included making “every effort to pursue peace, give top priority to avoiding the spread of war, and prevent Afghanistan from spiralling into a full-scale civil war,” Wang mentioned.
“We will work together to combat terrorism and push all major forces in Afghanistan to draw a clear line against terrorism, firmly combat the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other terrorist forces, and resolutely stop Afghanistan from becoming a hotbed of terrorism,” Wang mentioned.
China and Pakistan will actively promote peace by means of talks, advance efficient intra-Afghan talks, and take substantive steps in direction of political reconciliation and constructing a broad-based and inclusive political framework, he mentioned.
He mentioned each nations will promote coordination and cooperation amongst Afghanistan’s neighbouring international locations, discover the constructing of Afghanistan-related cooperation platforms, and assist Afghanistan obtain peaceable reconstruction and stay in amity with all its neighbours.
China, which desires the Taliban to sever hyperlinks with terrorist teams in Afghanistan, has stepped up its diplomacy to cut back frictions between Pakistan and Afghanistan over Islamabad’s backing for the Taliban and accept a power-sharing settlement with the Afghan authorities.
Wang-Qureshi assembly befell beneath the shadow of the current bomb assault on a shuttle bus carrying Chinese engineers at Dasu space of Upper Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province the place a Chinese firm is constructing a 4320-mw dam on the Indus river.
Nine Chinese personnel have been killed and 27 others injured.
China had rushed a particular staff amid complicated alerts from Pakistan that it might be a fuel blast. Islamabad later admitted it as a bomb blast stating that an explosive substance was discovered.
The Dasu bus blast had accentuated Beijing’s issues as hundreds of Chinese personnel labored within the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan installations, initiatives and personnel in Pakistan.
While Pakistan is worried over the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been waging an insurgency towards the nation for a number of years, China is apprehensive over the regrouping the Uyghur militants from Xinjiang who function beneath the aegis of ETIM, which Beijing alleges has hyperlinks with Al-Qaeda.
Observers say there may be confusion as nobody has claimed accountability for the incident, elevating questions whether or not it has an Afghan connection.
Although no organisation has claimed accountability but, Chinese consultants believed that the terrorist teams such because the Pakistani Taliban or the ETIM have been behind the assault, a report within the state-run Global Times mentioned on Monday.
Due to a altering atmosphere in Afghanistan, the ETIM terrorists could have fled to Pakistan the place they collaborated with the Pakistani Taliban to launch an assault on China, the paper quoted consultants as saying.
“But they also warned that if the situation in Afghanistan further deteriorates, Pakistan as well as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be in danger,” it mentioned.
The twelfth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the UN issued final month confirmed the presence of the ETIM militants in Afghanistan.
“The ETIM consists of several hundred members, located primarily in Badakhshan and neighbouring Afghan provinces,” mentioned the report, which was submitted to the UN Security Council.