Daily Times

TUNXI: The foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries Thursday reiterated their call for national reconciliation in Afghanistan through dialogue and negotiation besides the steps for ensuring women’s rights and children’s education.

The third Foreign Ministers’ Meeting among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan was held in Tunxi, Anhui Province in China.

The foreign ministers or senior representatives of seven countries, namely China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, attended the meeting.

The participants called for establishing a broad-based and inclusive political structure, adopting moderate and sound domestic and foreign policies, and growing friendly relations with all countries, especially its neighbors.

They also emphasized the necessity for all sides to strengthen dialogue and communication with Afghanistan for the above purposes.

The meeting called for further actions to be taken to improve people’s livelihood, safeguard the fundamental rights of all Afghans, including ethnic groups, women and children.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the meeting. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered remarks via video link.

The participants reaffirmed respect for the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity of Afghanistan, support for the Afghan people and the basic principle of “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned”.

They urged the countries mainly responsible for the current predicament in Afghanistan to earnestly fulfill commitments to the economic recovery and future development of Afghanistan.

They believed that a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan served the common interests of regional countries and Afghanistan.

The foreign ministers’ meeting reaffirmed opposition to attempts at politicizing humanitarian assistance and reiterated respect and support for the central role of Afghanistan in distributing and using humanitarian assistance.

The participants expressed deep concern over the humanitarian situation, economic and livelihood plight in Afghanistan and announced readiness to provide further humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

They appreciated the support for the key role of the UN in providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and called on the international community in particular the UN agencies and relevant members of the UN Security Council to step up emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

They expressed readiness to help Afghanistan enhance capacity in health care and COVID-19 containment.

Expressed support for Afghanistan’s efforts toward self-generated development, and undertook to support the economic recovery of Afghanistan at both bilateral and multilateral levels.

They reaffirmed their commitment to deepen cooperation within such frameworks as the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as regional cooperation organizations, and to include Afghanistan in the regional connectivity, energy and transport networks, economic and trade systems.

Discussing the counter-terrorism strategy, the participants noted commitments and pledges made by Afghanistan to the international community that the territory of Afghanistan would not pose any threats to the neighboring countries and no place will be given to terrorist groups on the Afghan territory.

They condemned all forms of violence and terrorist attacks, and reiterated that ISIS, Al-Qaeda, ETIM, TTP, BLA, Jondollah, Jaish-Al-Adl, Jamaat Ansarullah, IMU and other terrorist organizations must not be given any place on the Afghan territory.

The foreign ministers called on relevant Afghan parties to take more visible steps to make a clean break with all forms of terrorist forces, monitor the free movement of all terrorist organizations, and to firmly fight and eliminate them including through dismantling of their training camps.

The Afghan parties were urged to safeguard the security and legitimate rights and interests of foreign citizens and institutions in Afghanistan.

The meeting reaffirmed readiness to strengthen counter-terrorism and security cooperation among neighboring countries.

They noted the initiative of the Republic of Tajikistan on the “security belt” around Afghanistan and expressed readiness to conduct counter-terrorism and security cooperation with Afghanistan to help it build counter-terrorism capacity.

They encouraged relevant Afghan parties to take concrete actions against the cultivation, production and illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs.

They reaffirmed readiness to scale up joint efforts to combat cross-border drug-related crime and protect people’s health and social stability.

Discussing the Afghan refugee’s issue, the foreign ministers expressed concern over the situation of the Afghan refugee as well as internally displaced people and support for UN agencies in playing an active role in this regard.

They appreciated the efforts made by the regional countries, in particular Pakistan and Iran, on the issue of Afghan refugees and called on the international community to provide those countries with continuous, sufficient and proportionate financial support for the timely return of Afghan refugees with dignity and honor.

The meeting announced the launch of a mechanism for regular consultations among special envoys (special representatives) for Afghanistan of the neighboring countries and three working groups namely political and diplomatic, economic and humanitarian, security and stability, to follow up on the outcomes of the foreign ministers’ meetings among the neighboring countries of Afghanistan.

They appreciated the Chinese side for hosting the 3rd Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the high organizational level and supported Uzbekistan to convene the 4th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in first quarter of 2023 in Tashkent.