Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaking during the opening of the Fourth Istanbul Process conference on the reconstruction of Afghanistan in Beijing yesterday, on the last day of his four-day visit.
IANS/AFP
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani yesterday called upon the Taliban group to join the peace process in the country as the group has stepped up its insurgency activities across the country.
Without making any specific proposals for joining the reconciliation process, President Ghani said government forces would not back away from the fight against the Taliban,
Khaama Press reported.
Ghani insisted that peace was the highest priority of the Afghan government and invited the Taliban group to join and enter the political dialogue in a bid to bring peace and stability to the country.
He also called on the international community and partners of Afghanistan to support the peace process.
Ghani was speaking at a conference on Afghan peace and reconstruction in Beijing.
The fourth round of “Heart of Asia” Conference - Istanbul Process will focus on regional cooperation on Afghanistan.
The Istanbul Process agreement was reached in 2011 with the aim of presenting a new vision for regional co-operation for a secure and stable Afghanistan.
It comprises 14 members, including Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, and has 28 supporting parties which include the US, Britain, the UN and the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.
China hailed the international conference that it said agreed to launch dozens of programmes to boost development and help Afghanistan maintain peace as foreign forces draw down.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that under a “Beijing Declaration” the meeting agreed to start 64 programmes covering issues such as trade, investment, infrastructure, disaster management and
education.
The projects would help Afghanistan to develop and keep the peace without outside assistance, he added.
“The ministerial conference was a success,” Wang told reporters at the end of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Istanbul Process on
Afghanistan.
The Istanbul Process coincides with the end of new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s four-day visit to Beijing.
Afghanistan is at a turning point as all Nato combat troops will depart the country by December, leaving Afghan troops and police to battle Taliban insurgents on their own. A residual force of around 12,000 soldiers will remain, focusing on counter-terrorism and training local forces.
Afghan Foreign Minister Zarar Ahmad Osmani said that his country’s 350,000-member army was poised to take control of the entire country.
“Now 90% of Afghan territory is under the protection of the army,” he said told reporters. “Next, it will take control of 100% of all regions.”
China earlier this week pledged $245mn in aid to Afghanistan over the next three years, as well as greater support for Kabul in the struggle against “terrorist forces”.
Symbolising China’s importance, Ghani chose as his first destination for a state visit the resource-hungry economic giant that is seeking greater investment opportunities in Afghanistan.
“We look at China as a strategic partner, in the short term, medium term, long term and very long term,” Ghani told President Xi Jinping at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Tuesday.
China shares a narrow 76km (47 mile) border with Afghanistan’s remote far northeast, but has a keen interest in its neighbour’s mineral resources.
It has already secured major oil and copper-mining concessions in the country, which is believed to have more than $1tn worth of mineral resources, according to studies by the US Geological Survey.
China’s state-run media have highlighted both Beijing’s stepped-up involvement and the pitfalls that come with it.
“A comprehensive involvement in Afghan affairs by China will bring huge risks,” the Global Times newspaper warned in an editorial Thursday.
“It will have to confront the mess that the US experienced, the different views of Afghan sects in addition to the remaining US influence, making it a nearly impossible idea,” it wrote.
The paper concluded, however, that involvement in such international dilemmas is “the cost of being a major power and we need to get used to it”.
