Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Glance at Relations between Afghanistan and China

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Glance at Relations between Afghanistan and China

China has had peaceful and non-aggressive policies in the world particularly in regard to Afghanistan Affairs. Now China is considered the largest foreign investor in Afghanistan. Though she has the shortest border with Afghanistan, but her friendly neighborhood with Afghanistan back to 2000 before and has never had any conflict issues in the history of both countries. The relations between Afghanistan and China mostly involved in trade activities but after the fall of the Taliban regime and presence of International community in 2001, the relations between two countries had greatly improved. In December 2001, China sent to Afghanistan a working team of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which attended the Afghan transitional administration ceremony with a message of congratulations to President Hamid Karzai. In January 2002, President Karzai visited China, and met respectively with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The two sides exchanged the notes of China providing 30 million yuan of emergent material aid and US$1 million in cash to Afghanistan. President Jiang Zemin announced that China would provide US$150 million-worth of assistance to Afghanistan for its reconstruction. The 30 million yuan of emergent material aid had been delivered to Kabul by the end of March 2002.
In May 2002, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiazuan visited Afghanistan. During the visit, the Chinese Foreign Minister met with Hamid Karzai, Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan and held talks with his counterpart Mr. Abdullah Abdullah. The two sides signed the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation of US$30 million Chinese aid to Afghanistan. In November, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah visited China. During his visit, the Chinese and Afghan sides exchanged the notes of China providing US$1 million of material aid to Afghanistan. In December, China, together with the other 5 neighboring countries of Afghanistan signed Kabul Declaration on Good Neighborly Relations, reaffirming its commitment to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and to continuously support Afghanistan's peace process and reconstruction.
In February 2003, President Karzai passed through China twice. In May, the Vice President of Afghan Islamic Transitional Government Nematullah Sharhrani paid a working visit to China. During the visit he held talks with Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong and met with NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao. The two sides signed three cooperative documents including the Agreement of Economic and Technical Cooperation, under which the Chinese Government provides US$15 million grant to the Afghan Government. However, the relation between two countries confined to relations between two states and traders. Since 2010, the relation between two countries has been extending unprecedentedly. The investment of $3.5 billion investment to develop Aynak Copper mines, the launch of railway between Afghanistan and China, the visit ofs Afghan and China delegations entirely confirm that China and Afghanistan are closing more than ever.
In continue to the recent friendly communications, Tuesday on October 04, 2016, Mr. Zhang Min, who worked as former Charge d'Affaires of Chinese Embassy and the Current Professor of the Pashto Department of the Communication University of China leading a 6-member delegation, held a Seminar about The Past, Present and Future of China-Afghanistan Relations, during their visit from Afghanistan In embassy of China; Several Afghan journalists, analysts and members from Afghan China friendship association also attended the seminar. Professor Zhan Min, “said China and Afghanistan have never had any conflict issues until now.” He expressed his deep excuse about adverse effect of war on lives of innocent Afghan people and said that all Chinese people have the same feeling of sympathy about Afghan people. Finally, he said that China will do any types of help in contribute to peace process in Afghanistan.
And then, Mr. Zhang Zhixin, A political officer from Chinese embassy, said that he had released the Pashtu song, sung by Chinese pashtu Students came as members of this delegation, from Dr. Kamal’s face-book gained more than 4000 likes. It clearly indicates that there are deep feelings of friendships and good-will between people of two countries. Therefore, learning the languages of each other can play a good role in cultural, economic and social exchanges. on the whole, the participants from both countries admired the historic relations between two states and as well as traders of both countries but the relationships between people of two countries specially young generations, culture of two counties and the investments still need to be improved. Nevertheless, some Chinese participants representing CCTV raised their concerns about security issues as a worrying barrier for expansion of investments.
Consequently, Increasing China-Afghan cooperation can serve as the ballast for Afghan stability and the propeller for the regional peace. Because China has the strong potential to make important contributions to Afghan stability; on the other hand, the Chinese dream in her relations is peace, development, cooperative and win-win results, and it is similarly connected to the Afghan dream. So, Afghan government must not take a passive approach towards the technical and investment opportunities in building her infrastructures. We should not let the new type of relations stay as a concept or unpractical; we should push it forward and pave the way for more investments. The government should ensure the security of international business men and women who are interested to invest in Afghanistan. Also, they can be encouraged to invest in peaceful provinces of Afghanistan if currently not possible to work in certain provinces. Due to lack of financial ability, there is no way for Afghanistan unless seriously pave the way for private and international investments so as to overcome the current economic crisis.

Mohammad Zahir Akbari is the newly emerging writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at mohammadzahirakbari@ gmail.com

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