China’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Deng Xijun says his country looks forward to a close relation between Afghanistan and Pakistan and is ready to help improve relations between the two countries.
Xijun met President Ashraf Ghani yesterday August 18 in the Presidential Palace.
A statement released by the Presidential Palace said that China’s special envoy pointed out the close relation between Afghanistan and China and emphasized that his country has supported Afghanistan in the past 18 years.
He declared that China hopes the Taliban will accept the Afghan people’s demands and enter into negotiations for a ceasefire with the Afghan government.
Xijun said that China, as Afghanistan’s good neighbor, plays its active role in the peace process.
Meanwhile, President Ashraf Ghani also said that Afghanistan and China have security cooperation and China fights against the terrorist group of the East Turkestan Movement which is a threat to Afghanistan.
“As a terrorist group, the Taliban still has close ties with a large number of terrorist networks in Afghanistan including the East Turkestan Movement. We must treat the Taliban as a group and not see it as a government, because it violates international principles and standards of China,” Ghani said.
The President stressed that the republican system of Afghanistanwill never be debated with one group and Taliban have to choose a political solution and that the group can never collapse a big system.
He called for the continuation of terrorist attacks by Taliban a major obstacle against the peace process and noted that continued attacks have weakened the public’s desire to negotiate with the Taliban, on contrary, strengthens Afghan’s resolve to suppress them.
Ghani further added that the Pakistani government has not yet taken any serious action to reduce violence and cooperation with the Afghan peace process as the Pakistani support for the Taliban continues.
