The Afghan people are facing extreme hunger and poverty, but little progress has been made on the goal of providing $4.44 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. Recently, UNHCR had appealed to the international community to provide support to Afghans while paying attention to the Ukrainian crisis, so as to avoid the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
As close neighbors of Afghanistan and important forces in maintaining world peace and international order, China and Pakistan have always been playing key roles in the Afghan issue and providing substantive assistance to the Afghan people within their capabilities. The deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan is detrimental to regional peace. The stability and development of Afghanistan are conducive to regional peace, the interests of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, as well as the interests of the whole international community. In addition, Afghanistan’s neighboring countries all have a very positive attitude towards regional connectivity. All parties have fully recognized that due to the special location of Afghanistan, the country’s move towards peace, stability and development is conducive to the docking of development strategies of all the countries in South, Central and West Asia, the construction of connectivity in the whole region, and the development and prosperity of the whole region. A few days back third meeting of Foreign Ministers of Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan was held in China. Foreign Ministers of Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan including Afghanistan participated in the summit. The main focus of the Foreign Ministers summit was Afghanistan’s peace, humanitarian assistance, counter-terrorism, economic development, and connectivity. Humanitarian needs and economic upheavals have worsened in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August in last year. The international community has not yet recognized the Taliban government and Afghanistan is in the grip of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Beside this, China also hosted a series of bilateral, trilateral and multilateral meetings that attended by the delegates of the United States and Russia to discuss ways to stabilize Afghanistan and convey to Taliban to emphasis on moderate policies to combat terrorism. However, during Pakistani Foreign Minister visit to China, he interacted with his counterparts from the participating countries including Central Asian countries, Russia and Iran and discussed regional issues, peace and stability of south Asia. Before hosting the multilateral talks, earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang concluded his visit to South Asian states Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, his trip to South Asia came at a time when the spillover effect of the Ukraine crisis had been continuously increasing and the world peace and development were facing new challenges.
The Pakistani Foreign Minister’s participation in Troika plus in China indicates that Pakistan fully supports a regional approach on Afghanistan for promoting durable peace and stability in the region. Pakistan also continues to support the international community’s efforts to advance the shared objectives of a peaceful, stable, sovereign, prosperous and connected Afghanistan. Pakistan being a sovereign state respects the sovereignty of other states and in OIC conference it also reiterated the desire of peaceful and diplomatic solution on Ukraine crisis. Pakistan also conveyed readiness to help facilitate a diplomatic solution through OIC platform.
