As close neighbors of Afghanistan and important forces in maintaining world peace and international order, China and Pakistan have always been playing key roles in the Afghan issue and providing substantive assistance to the Afghan people within their capabilities.
These views were expressed by Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor of Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Senior Fellow of the Charhar Institute in a statement on Saturday.
He said, the third meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries on Afghanistan held in Tunxi, Central China’s Anhui Province, on March 31 was very successful and reached a series of high degree of consensus. Judging from this meeting, Afghanistan’s neighboring countries all attach great importance to promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
The deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan is detrimental to regional peace. The stability and development of Afghanistan are conducive to regional peace, the interests of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, as well as the interests of the whole international community.
Prof. Cheng, who is also former Chinese Defense Attach’s in South Asian countries noted that in the documents produced by the meeting, all the neighboring countries participating in the meeting pledged to support Afghanistan’s economic reconstruction in the fields of humanitarian assistance, connectivity, economy and trade, agriculture, energy and capacity-building.
He pointed out that since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, the Afghan issue seems to be increasingly forgotten by the United States and the western world. Statistics from the United Nations World Food Programme show that 22.8 million Afghans are facing serious food security problems, and 3.2 million Afghan children under the age of 5 are seriously malnourished.
The Afghan people are facing extreme hunger and poverty, but little progress has been made on the goal of providing $4.44 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. Recently, UNHCR had appealed to the international community to provide support to Afghans while paying attention to the Ukrainian crisis, so as to avoid the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Prof. Cheng opined that the world should not forget Afghanistan, let alone deliberately ignore the Afghan issue. Therefore, the third meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries focusing on Afghanistan was particularly important and timely, reminding the international community that the Afghan issue is still in an important position on the current international peace and security agenda.
In addition, Afghanistan’s neighboring countries all have a very positive attitude towards regional connectivity. All parties have fully recognized that due to the special location of Afghanistan, the country’s move towards peace, stability and development is conducive to the docking of development strategies of all the countries in South, Central and West Asia, the construction of connectivity in the whole region, and the development and prosperity of the whole region, he concluded.