China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi says that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will form a contact group to help in a political settlement in Afghanistan to put an end to the long-lasted war.
He made the remarks in a meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart Chingiz Aidarbekov in Beijing on Thursday.
“We will make the SCO Afghanistan contact group to play a better role so we can speed up the political settlement of Afghanistan internal issues,” said Wang.
His remarks come as efforts on Afghan peace have been accelerated which include creation of a “national negotiating team” by Afghan government. Reports indicate that Taliban has also formed their negotiating team.
A number of researchers at the at the Middle East Institute in Washington said reaching peace in Afghanistan without direct engagement of Afghans is difficult.
Former Afghan envoy to Canada Omar Samad talking at the institute said nothing will go ahead successfully until Afghans have discord among themselves.
“As long as we remain fragmented, this is my message again to Kabul, as long as Afghans remain fragmented on that side, nothing is going to move forward. And they would have missed the boat and a chance to come together, agree on the redlines,” Samad said.
President Ashraf Ghani in his recent visit to Turkmenistan this week said a number of regional countries support insurgency.
Speaking at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Ghani said a number of countries are not respecting sovereignty of other nations and that by sending suicide bombers interfere in the internal affairs of those nations.
“The wider Asian region, unfortunately, is marked by lack of respect for sovereignty. For consistent interference, it rages as far as direct state sponsorship of terror and sending of suicide bombers to some countries,” said Ghani.
Ghani said insurgency is a threat against the region and the world adding that an alternative to this phenomenon should be presented to the region and the world.
Ghani left Kabul for Ashgabat on Wednesday afternoon and on Thursday he and his Turkmenistan counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement.
The two countries also signed seven Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on cultural exchanges between Turkmenistan Academy of Science and National Archive of Afghanistan, railway project, aviation, customs, petroleum, gas and energy transfer.
Ghani said that the Strategic Partnership Agreement is a milestone and will increase relations between the two nations.
