By C. Andrew
With the commencement of CPEC, the
role of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the region has become more important. As
Afghanistan’s strategic location helps the Central Asia to have access to the
Gulf and African markets through Gwadar, and Pakistan being the hub of regional
connectivity through Gwadar is set to change the shapes of international trade.
In a bid to resolve key issues such
as terrorism and peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan along with China and
Afghanistan has consistently been holding trilateral dialogues to address
issues. With key militant fighters threatening both the relations and CPEC, it
is imperative for both Pakistan and Afghanistan to address their concerns in
order to achieve the larger cause of regional connectivity. In this connection,
Pakistan, China and Afghanistan signed MoU vis a vis anti-terrorism cooperation
during second trilateral ministerial dialogue in Kabul on 15 December 20018.
The MoU was signed by Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Quarshi and his
Chinese as well as Afghan counterparts Wang Yi and Salahuddin Rabbani
respectively. The signing of document was witnessed by afghan President Ashraf
Ghani.
While speaking at trilateral
dialogue, Salahuddin Rabbani said that collective efforts were required to
address the common challenge of terrorism. “We desire to strengthen our
relations with Pakistan,” he said and also appreciated the Chinese One Belt One
Road initiative. Shah Mehmood Quarshi, during a joint press conference, called
for a joint strategy to eradicate terrorism from region. He said he was
visiting Kabul to bridge the trust deficit between the two countries. “We all
want peace and stability in Afghanistan,” the minister said, adding that
Pakistan will continue to play facilitative role in Afghanistan reconciliation
process. “We will do everything to support the growing momentum towards
reconciliation provided other play their due role and share responsibility and
create an enabling environment towards that end.” Whereas, Chinese FM Wang said
that Beijing will extend all possible cooperation to build trust and confidence
between Pakistan and Afghanistan. China will also assist in establishing
connectivity projects including a rail line between Kabul and Kandahar, he
said, adding that Beijing “desires to make Afghanistan a part of the CPEC.”
China and Pakistan congratulated Afghanistan on the completion of parliamentary
elections and welcomed the efforts of Afghan government for holding the
presidential elections in 2019.
During the dialogue of three sides,
once again, declared their commitment to further strengthen their relations,
depending cooperation, advancing connectivity under the Bely and Road
Initiative (BRI), Regional Economic Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) and other
regional initiatives. They also reiterated their strong resolve to fight
terrorism in all its forms and manifestation, and without any distinction while
agreeing to continue efforts for building political mutual trust and support
reconciliation, development cooperation and connectivity, security cooperation
and counter-terrorism as the three areas of the trilateral cooperation. They
resolved to support the Afghan led inclusive peace process that was fully
supported regionally and internationally, as the most viable way to bring peace
in Afghanistan. In this regard, Pakistan and China appreciated the efforts of
President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani especially for the comprehensive peace plans.
Moreover, China expressed its readiness to support Afghanistan and Pakistan in
building immigration reception cetre and drinking water supply schemes at each
side of the Ghulam Khan khel crossing point and to explore cold storage at
Chaman and Spin Boldak. They expressed their determination not to allow any
country, organization or individual to use their respective territories for
terrorist activities against any other countries. They took stock of trilateral
cooperation in their fight against terrorism and underlined that need to
further strengthen counter-terrorism coordination and cooperation in an effort
to combat all terrorist groups and individuals without any discrimination.
Mr Quarshi reaffirmed commitment to
eradication of terrorism, and also said that “better border management between
Pakistan and Afghanistan and intelligence sharing will be greatly beneficial
for the both countries”. He also added that Pakistan will continue facilitative
role on Afghan reconciliation process and will do everything to support the
growing momentum towards reconciliation. Presence of Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani sent a strong signal that Afghan government wants to end this war.
President Ashraf Ghani met Chines FM after the signing of the MoU and sought
his country’s cooperation on strengthening a regional peace consensus. This
step has been taken by any Afghan government to invite China for this
outstanding issue of the region sine more than two decades. Mr yi said that his
country also wants to further strengthen relations with Afghanistan and desires
to make it part of CPEC. Pakistan being the victim of terrorism has always
supported dialogue process for peaceful resolution of Afghan conflict and has
always welcomed and step taken by international community for peace resolution.
Chinese Think Tank however,
expressed concerns as Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of
Social Science Institute of International Relations has warned that the move to
include China in peace process in the region may lead to sabotage from India in
order to destroy the implementation of BRI in Pakistan and India has always believed
that BRI is a strategy by china to encircle India and show its dominance in
Asia and has been accused by Pakistan of supporting the nationalist insurgents
in the Baluchistan Province. Separatists from Baluchistan who oppose BRI
projects in the province claimed the responsibility for an attack in November
against the Chinese Consulate that killed four people.
Meanwhile, Li Wei a
counter-Terrorism expert at National Defence University, told the Global Times
that in long-term, India will also benefit from a better security situation in
South Asia. Li noted that China uphold the win-win strategy and its principle
of “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned” in promoting the reconciliation process in
accordance with the country’s own will with regard to the issue, which is a
major reason for the smooth proceeding of the trilateral dialogue. Moreover,
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson HUua Chunying while terming the second
China, Pakistan and Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers Dialogue held in
Kabul a great success, said that china would remain in close contact with the
two sides to implement the agreement made during the dialogue, “We believe that
meeting is a great success. We will remain in close contact with the two sides
to implement these relevant agreements,” Chunying said during regular briefing.
