Afghan Prez on three-day China visit to boost ties

Karzai would arrive here on Tuesday on a 3-day visit amid speculation that he may seek deeper engagement of China in his country.

Beijing: Afghan President Hamid Karzai would arrive here on Tuesday on a three-day visit amid speculation that he may seek deeper engagement of China in his country both on the military front to contain Taliban and in rebuilding efforts.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has already said that Beijing "wished" to deepen its ties with Afghanistan during Karzai’s visit.

"We warmly welcome President Karzai to visit China. We wish that the visit by President Karzai will further advance the progress of the good neighbourly, friendly and co-operative relations between China and Afghanistan," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said last week.

Karzai`s visit to Beijing evokes a great deal of interest in host of world capitals including New Delhi as he is expected to make a strong case for China to take a more pro-active role in stabilising his country.

China has provided USD 900 million of assistance for various reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Karzai was arriving with a high-level business delegation to firm up Chinese funding for more projects.

Beijing was also apparently concerned about the destabilising effect of al Qaeda and Taliban insurgency in Pakistan.

China played a low key role in Afghanistan so far sticking to developmental projects while refraining to take pro-active role to contain Taliban by backing US and other countries efforts in this regard.

China, a neighbour of Afghanistan, apparently was not at ease with US and NATO troops digging in deep in the war ravaged country battling Taliban.

Reports have said that Beijing has not responded to both Afghan and NATO troops call to open up the border on the east of Wakhan corridor to step up fight against Talilban, saying that it would not like to get sucked into the military conflict in Afghanistan.

China, however, has its own concerns in that region, specially the separatist movement in Muslim Uyghur dominated Xinjiang were over 200 people were killed in riots in the provincial capital Urumqi between Uyghurs and Hans Chinese last year.

"China`s border security will face a serious threat if Afghanistan remains unstable," a write up in the official Global Times commenting on Karzai`s re-election said recently.

Besides security concerns, China also has a huge economic stake in the area, being the largest investor in Afghanistan.

The whole region is of strategic importance to China`s energy security, it said, adding a stable Afghanistan is of crucial interest to China and Beijing "should and can play a big role in helping" Kabul.

"As Afghanistan`s neighbour, China is very concerned about the country`s future," Zhang Xiaodong, Deputy Chief of the Chinese Association for Middleeast Studies, told China Daily.

"Afghanistan should cut reliance on the US. At the moment, Washington is deeply involved, and it makes other neighbours nervous. Karzai now hopes to seek more support from other big countries and find a diplomatic balance," Zhang said.

PTI

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