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XINHUA-PAKISTAN SERVICE

Wang Yi’s Pak-Afghan shuttle diplomacy moves aheadBreaking

December 25, 2017

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (INP): Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s shuttle diplomacy will get a major step forward here on Tuesday, when he meets with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts to implement their common desire, peace and development. In June this year, he had travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to push forward the peace process. His shuttle diplomacy came out with a positive result, as now trilateral talks are going to take place here at the foreign ministers’ level. On the invitation of Chinese side, Foreign Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Asif and foreign minister of Afghanistan Salahuddin Rabbani will have first round talks. They will head their respective delegations to attend the dialogue. A spokeswoman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said at a news briefing last week that “As a common neighbor and friend of Afghanistan and Pakistan, China always supports Afghanistan and Pakistan in living in friendship and achieving common development. In June this year, when Wang Yi was visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan for shuttle diplomacy, the three countries had agreed to establish the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ trilateral dialogue mechanism, which will serve as a platform for enhancing the dialogue and cooperation among the three countries. This will be the first round of China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral Foreign Ministers‘ dialogue. The three countries will have in-depth communication on three topics, namely, mutual political trust and reconciliation, development cooperation and connectivity and security cooperation and counter-terrorism. The Chinese side hopes that through this dialogue, the three countries can build up consensus, enhance mutual trust, promote the improvement of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, enhance trilateral cooperation and jointly stay committed to the peace, stability and development of this region.” While undertaking task of mediation, Wang Yi had requested the two sides to promote the improvement of bilateral relations and support the Afghan reconciliation process. Wang Yi during his talks with two foreign ministers had also stressed that China never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, never imposes China’s will on others and never involves in geopolitical rivalry. However, he expressed his willing to give friends a helping hand when they are in needs. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan hoped China play its role, reflecting the high trust towards China. During the visit, after having candid and in-depth talks with the leaders of the two countries and listening to the views of two parties, they reached broad consensus and issued a joint press communiqué among China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The trilateral press communiqué has five core consensus.First, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan are willing to jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, strengthen cooperation in connectivity and economy and promote common security and development. Second, Afghanistan and Pakistan are willing to vigorously improve bilateral relations and agree to establish a bilateral crisis management mechanism to communicate on emergency issues in a timely and effective manner. China supports this mechanism. Third, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to build a meeting mechanism of China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers and carry out cooperation in the fields of common interests, starting with practical cooperation. Fourth, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to resume the coordination group of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US, devote to domestic peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and call on Taliban to join in the peace process at an early stage. Fifth, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan support the resumption of the liaison group between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Afghanistan and play a constructive role in promoting the reconciliation process of Afghanistan. INP/J/AH