Neighbours should not interfere in Afghanistan: China

BEIJING - China on Friday hailed an international conference on Afghanistan that it said agreed to launch dozens of programmes to boost development and help the country maintain peace as foreign forces draw down. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said that under a “Beijing Declaration” the meeting agreed to start 64 programmes covering issues such as trade, investment, infrastructure, disaster management and education. The projects would help Afghanistan to develop and keep the peace without outside assistance, he added. “The ministerial conference was a success,” Wang told reporters at the end of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan. The Istanbul Process - a key annual meeting on Afghanistan by high-level representatives from more than three-dozen countries and organisations - coincides with the end of new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s four-day visit to Beijing. Addressing the conference, President Ghani reiterated his call for the Taliban to join a national peace dialogue and urged his country’s international partners to support what he said is an Afghan-led and Afghan owned process. “Peace is our highest priority. We invite the political opposition, particularly the Taliban, to join an inter-Afghan dialogue and ask all our international partners to support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” said Ghani. Ghani vowed his country will not permit anyone to use Afghan territory against another state. “We must not, and will not permit groups pursuing grand illusions to use our country as the battle ground or launching pad against the international system,” he stated. “We are determined to lead and own the peace process through an inter-Afghan dialogue. We ask our neighbours and partners to assist us in this critical process by honestly and clearly communicating whether they have the capacity and the will to be of assistance,” he said.   Agencies