Wang Yi: China has decided to provide emergency material assistance worth 200 million yuan to Afghanistan

On September 8, 2021, State Councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi attended the first foreign ministers' meeting of Afghanistan's neighboring countries by video in Beijing.

Wang Yi expressed that today's Afghanistan stands at the crossroads of history. The United States and its allies withdrew hastily, and the power politics, military intervention and so-called "democratic transformation" pursued by the United States and the West ended in failure. However, Afghanistan is still facing serious challenges such as humanity, people's livelihood and COVID-19. Some international forces may also create new problems for Afghanistan by means of political, economic and financial means. Yesterday, the Afghan Taliban announced the establishment of an interim government, and the "interim" nature of the regime just shows that there are still many uncertainties in Afghanistan's future.

Wang Yi pointed out that as a neighboring country, no country is more reluctant than us to see Afghanistan fall back into war and start a new scourge, and no country is more eager than us to restore peace and achieve development in Afghanistan. We should seize the critical window period of chaos and governance in Afghanistan and exert a positive and positive impact on the development and changes of the situation on the basis of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Wang Yi stressed that we should make an objective judgment on the historical longitude and latitude of the Afghan issue and require the United States and its allies to deeply learn lessons and shoulder their due responsibilities. The United States and its allies are the initiators of the Afghan problem. Over the past 20 years, the terrorist forces in Afghanistan have not been eliminated, but have been increasing. The Afghan people have not achieved development and dignity, but lingered in poverty and hardship. The general view of the international community is that the end of military intervention by the United States and its allies should be the beginning of real responsibility. They are more obliged than any other country to provide economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and, on the premise of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty and independence, help Afghanistan maintain stability, prevent chaos and move towards sound development.

Wang Yi expressed that we should guide and urge the Afghan Taliban to unite all ethnic groups and factions, build a broad and inclusive political structure, pursue a moderate and stable domestic and foreign policy, draw a clear line with terrorist forces, and establish and develop friendly relations with all countries, especially neighboring countries. We welcome the recent positive statements made by the Taliban on issues such as political construction, counter-terrorism and friendship with neighbors. The key is to put it into concrete action. The most important one is broad tolerance and the second is to resolutely fight terrorism. It is expected that the Taliban will learn from historical experience, actively interact with all ethnic groups and factions in Afghanistan during the interim government, earnestly fulfill their commitments and strive for international recognition.

Wang Yi said that Afghanistan's neighboring countries should play a unique role in addressing their legitimate concerns and providing a good external environment for Afghanistan's stability and reconstruction. At the current stage, we can focus on six aspects of coordination and cooperation:

First, help Afghanistan strengthen epidemic prevention and control. Afghanistan is one of the countries with the lowest vaccination rate in the world, and there is a risk of accelerated spread of the epidemic in Afghanistan. All parties can work together to continue to provide anti epidemic materials and technical assistance to Afghanistan. China has decided to donate the first 3 million doses of vaccine to the Afghan people and is willing to provide more anti epidemic and emergency materials to Afghanistan under the China South Asia emergency reserve.

Second, keep ports open. Afghanistan's economic and trade exchanges are highly dependent on land ports. On the premise of ensuring the security of all countries, we should maintain smooth ports with Afghanistan. China is willing to actively study the resumption of China Afghanistan freight trains, support other neighboring countries to strengthen Customs clearance capacity-building with Afghanistan, and facilitate Afghanistan's interaction with the outside world, especially access to humanitarian supplies.

Third, strengthen the control of difficult immigrants. The United States and its allies should bear the primary responsibility for solving the problem of Afghan refugees, and provide necessary compensation to countries that are qualified and willing to receive Afghan refugees. We call on the Taliban to improve the inclusiveness and predictability of governance, so that the people can really live and work in peace and contentment, and fundamentally reduce the generation of difficult immigrants. At the same time, the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms should be strongly supported to play an active role in this regard.

Fourth, provide humanitarian assistance as soon as possible. Neighboring countries should help each other and lend a helping hand when the other is in trouble. According to the needs of the Afghan people, China has decided to urgently provide 200 million yuan worth of food, wintering materials, vaccines and drugs. When security and other conditions are met, China is willing to help Afghanistan build projects that help improve people's livelihood, and support Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction and economic development within its capabilities.

Fifth, deepen counter-terrorism security cooperation. The changes in the situation in Afghanistan have had a complex impact on the international and regional counter-terrorism situation. We would like to urge the Taliban to resolutely and completely cut off all extremist terrorist forces and take effective measures to restrain and combat them. All parties should strengthen intelligence sharing and border control cooperation, timely arrest and eliminate terrorist groups sneaking into Afghanistan, and ensure regional security and stability.

Sixth, carry out drug control cooperation. Recently, the Taliban announced that Afghanistan will no longer produce any drugs. We should encourage and support this, and help Afghan farmers to carry out alternative cultivation and jointly eliminate the source of drugs in this region. At the same time, China is willing to take joint action with all parties to crack down on transnational drug crimes in the region and protect the lives, health and social stability of the people in the region.

In conclusion, Wang Yi said that today's foreign ministers' meeting is the first attempt of Afghanistan's neighboring countries to cooperate to deal with the changes in the situation in Afghanistan, and also marks the formal establishment of the coordination and cooperation mechanism between Afghanistan's neighboring countries. This is very timely and necessary at the moment. The meeting will send a common voice and clear political signal from Afghanistan's neighbours. China supports the continuation of this unique mechanism, sharing policy propositions, coordinating each other's positions and jointly addressing challenges through this platform.

The participants stressed that in the face of the current changes in Afghanistan, it is very necessary for Afghanistan's neighboring countries to coordinate their views and positions in a timely manner. The international community should respect Afghanistan's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, help Afghanistan achieve security, stability and economic reconstruction, and provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The United States and its allies must bear their due responsibilities in this regard. The participants called on the future Afghan government to be open, inclusive, representative of all ethnic groups and factions, and completely cut off from all kinds of international terrorist organizations. All participants spoke positively of the series of consensus reached at the first foreign ministers' meeting of Afghanistan's neighboring countries, affirmed its unique role, and agreed to institutionalize the foreign ministers' meeting of Afghanistan's neighboring countries.

The first foreign ministers' meeting of Afghanistan's neighboring countries was chaired by Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi. Chinese State Councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi, foreign minister abdullahiyan of Iran, foreign minister mukhreddin of Tajikistan, foreign minister kamilov of Uzbekistan and Deputy Foreign Minister hajiyev of Turkmenistan attended the meeting.