China to strengthen coordination with Pakistan on Afghan issues: FM

BEIJING - China and Pakistan need to strengthen communication and coordination to support a stable transition in Afghanistan, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.

He made the remarks in the evening during a phone conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Wang congratulated Pakistan on its grand celebration of the 75th Independence Day and wished it prosperity and strength.

Noting that the situation in Afghanistan has changed dramatically and become the focus of global attention recently, Wang said the so-called "democratic transformation" proved to be unrealistic, which only brought about hurtful consequences and lessons from it are worth remembering and learning.

As important neighbors of Afghanistan and responsible countries in the region, China and Pakistan need to play constructive roles in maintaining regional peace and stability, Wang said, offering the following four suggestions:

Firstly, the two sides should encourage all Afghan parties to strengthen solidarity, and to establish a new broad-based and inclusive political structure that is suited to the Afghan national conditions, and supported by the public.

Secondly, the two sides should support Afghanistan in its resolute fight against terrorism, and Afghanistan must not become a gathering place for terrorism again.

Thirdly, the two sides should contact and communicate with the Taliban in Afghanistan to ensure the safety of Chinese and Pakistani personnel and institutions there, as the Chinese and Pakistani embassies in Afghanistan are still operating normally.

Fourthly, the two sides should promote international cooperation involving Afghanistan in an orderly manner, and especially give play to the unique role of neighboring countries, so as to push the situation in Afghanistan gradually into a virtuous circle, during which various mechanisms should complement each other and expand consensus.

Discussing the Dasu terrorist attack, Wang voiced China's appreciation of the important progress made by Pakistan in the investigation and hoped that Pakistan will make every effort to arrest the perpetrators, and punish them in accordance with the law, so as to give an explanation to the people of the two countries and as well as a powerful deterrent to the forces that attempt to undermine China-Pakistan friendship.

He also hopes that Pakistan will accelerate to implement strengthened whole-process security measures and upgraded security cooperation mechanism to ensure that similar incidents will not happen again.

For his part, Qureshi thanked China for its good wishes for Pakistan's Independence Day and its long-term strong support for Pakistan's national construction, saying that Pakistan will go all out to arrest perpetrators of the Dasu terrorist attack, find out the forces behind it and severely punish them.

He expressed his appreciation for China's important and positive role on the Afghan issue, saying as Afghanistan's neighbors, Pakistan and China are countries most expecting Afghanistan to realize peace, and as all-weather strategic cooperative partners, they ought to strengthen coordination.

Afghanistan needs a political settlement through negotiations in the future, Qureshi said, adding the Taliban's takeover of Kabul has not caused bloodshed and Afghanistan's domestic situation is stabilizing with life gradually returning to normal.

He added that all the parties should support the Taliban to implement its commitment and protect the rights and interests of the Afghan people.

Pakistan, he said, stands ready to strengthen communication with China, push the Taliban to work with all other parties to set up an inclusive and comprehensive political structure and establish a multilateral coordination mechanism involving the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, and urge the international community to jointly support the efforts of various Afghan factions to achieve peace and stability.