Beijing, June 26: China Monday announced that it will launch “shuttle diplomacy” between Pakistan and Afghanistan to ease tensions between the two neighbours and promote the peace process in war-torn Afghanistan amidst a spurt in terror attacks in both the countries.
China will conduct the shuttle diplomacy between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during his visit to both the countries, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
Wang visited Islamabad and Kabul June 24 and 25.
During the visit, the two countries agreed to establish the bilateral Crisis Management Mechanism, Geng said.
The main targets for the visit are to implement the consensus between the state leaders and in addition the requirement of Afghanistan and Pakistan as directed by Chinese leaders, he said.
“We will conduct shuttle diplomacy to help improve relations between the two countries within our capacity and also to promote the peace process in Afghanistan,” Geng said.
Asked about Afghanistan’s allegations that Pakistan is harbouring Taliban militants who were blamed for the recurring terrorist attacks in that country, Geng said “this shuttle visit made by Wang was conducted in agreement with Afghanistani and Pakistani sides”.
“During this visit, the two countries have sent out goodwill messages to each other and two sides agreed to establish the bilateral Crisis Management Mechanism.
“We think that this is important step forward towards the improvement of their bilateral relationship and we also stated many times that maintenance of friendly relationships between two countries is conducive to regional stability and security and international efforts against terrorism, we will continue our efforts in this regard,” Geng said.
Afghanistan in recent months has alleged that Pakistan is carrying out destabilisation and terrorist activities inside the country.
“We call it an undeclared war because the objectives are not set. We do not know what the objectives are for Pakistan. And that is something that we have been trying to discover,” Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the US Hamdullah Mohib told an audience at an event organised by Indus think-tank in Washington where his Pakistan counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry was also present.
China, an “all-weather ally” of Pakistan in recent years, has stepped its engagement with Afghanistan by appointing a special envoy on Afghanistan. PTI