China, Afghanistan, Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue held in Beijing

ISLAMABAD: The first China, Pakistan and Afghanistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue was held in Beijing on Tuesday morning.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Foreign Minister Wang Yi of the People’s Republic of China and Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan held the 1st China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue in Beijing, on December 26.

The three foreign ministers agreed to jointly work together on political mutual trust and reconciliation, development cooperation and connectivity, security cooperation and counter-terrorism as three topics of the trilateral cooperation, a press release issued from Foreign Office said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan congratulated China on the successful conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and fully supported the initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to build community with a shared future for mankind.

The three sides reaffirmed their commitment to improving their relations, deepening mutually beneficial cooperation, advancing connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative, and fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestation without any distinction.

The three sides reaffirmed that a broad-based and inclusive peace and reconciliation process, which was “Afghan-led, Afghan-own”, and fully supported regionally and internationally, was the most viable solution to end the violence in Afghanistan.

The three sides agreed to conduct win-win trilateral economic cooperation, with an incremental approach, starting from the easier initiative to the more difficult ones.

The three sides agreed to continue economic development cooperation in areas of mutual interest, and expressed willingness to strengthen people-to-people contacts.

The three sides reiterated their firm resolve to fight the menace of terrorism. They expressed their strong determination not to allow any country, organization or individual to use their respective territories for terrorist activities against any other countries.

The three sides agreed to strengthen counter-terrorism coordination and cooperation in an effort to combat all terrorist organizations and individuals without any discrimination.

The three sides would communicate and consult on developing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Counter-Terrorism Cooperation.

The Afghan and Pakistani sides thanked the Chinese side for the successful holding of the 1st China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue and its warm hospitality.

The three sides agreed that the 2nd China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue would be held in Kabul in 2018.