China's top security official and member of Communist Party's politburo, Zhou Yongkang, paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he met with President Hamid Karzai on issues ranging from investment and bilateral trade to terrorism and drug trafficking, China's state-run news agency XINHUA said Sunday.
Beijing kept the visit secret because of security concerns, the agency said.
[Source: CNN Online quoting XINHUA agency on September 23]
.....................................................................................
Earlier on June 8, 2012, China's President Hu Jintao had held talks with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, in the frame of an SCO summit that took place in Beijing at that time (picture above). He offered a five-point proposal for future talks between high-ranking officials of both countries.
[Source: Website of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 8, 2012]
.....................................................................................
It should not surprise that it was China's top security official, Zhou Yongkang, who now came to Kabul because deteriorating security in Afghanistan is a crucial point in the development of bilateral relations.
As to security problems between Afghanistan and China, the following text has been quoted from a relevant article published by Al-Jazeera the day before:
الصين وأفغانستان.. علاقات ما بعد الناتو
China and Afghanistan - Relations After Nato [Engagement]
تعكس عناوين الاتفاقيات هواجس أمنية لدى البلدين، والتطلعات الاقتصادية الصينية في أفغانستان، ففيما يتعلق بالجانب الأمني تتزايد مخاوف بكين بشأن تدهور الأمن مع جارتها أفغانستان والتي تشترك معها في حدود يبلغ طولها 76 كيلومترا
Both sides are [reconsidering] an agreement of security obsession on the part of both countries as China's economic ambitions in Afghanistan are being related to the security aspect of increasing dangers [due to] deteriorating security that is [raging in] Afghanistan and [even] reaching the border of [both] countries which stretches over 76 km.
[Source: Al-Jazeera Online on September 24, 2012]
.....................................................................................
The following text is a quotation from China Daily's article on Zhou Yongkang visiting Kabul and dated September 24 (last update), 2012:
Zhou said China is willing to make due contributions to peace and stability in Afghanistan, which is at a critical transition period.
"We will continue to provide assistance to Afghanistan with no attached conditions and sincerely hope the Afghan people can regain peace as soon as possible and build a better home in a peaceful environment," he added.
The United States has said that Washington and its allies will completely withdraw their troops from Afghanistan by 2014, leaving the country to stand on its own.
Karzai said Afghanistan would like China to be involved in its reconstruction efforts and is expecting China to play a bigger role in the peaceful development of Afghanistan and the region.
Official figures showed that by the end of 2011, China's direct investment into Afghanistan stood at about $200 million and the aggregate contract value of projects undertaken by Chinese constructors in Afghanistan reached nearly $600 million. In addition, about 20 China-aided projects in Afghanistan were completed between 2002 and 2011.
Karzai said China is among the first batch of countries that invested in Afghanistan, which brought concrete benefits to the Afghan people, and Afghanistan welcomes China to expand investment.
No comments:
Post a Comment