DM Monitoring
BEIJING: Participants of virtual China-Afghanistan-Central Asian Countries (CA5) Vice Foreign Ministers’ Meeting called on the international community to support the Afghan peace and reconciliation process, step up counter-terrorism cooperation and create an enabling environment for relevant cooperation. The meeting on Trade and Connectivity on December 9 was successfully held, said here by Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry at a press conference.
According the spokesperson, all sides had an in-depth exchange of views on regional cooperation and reached positive consensus with good effects.
Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui chaired the meeting and put forward four proposals for cooperation: deepening the cooperation on global COVID-19 response, expanding economic and trade cooperation, advancing connectivity, and deepening cooperation on the counter-terrorism and security fronts.Afghanistan and CA5 all spoke highly of China’s proposals and success in hosting the meeting, which built a new platform for regional countries to exchange experience and deepen cooperation.All participants expressed readiness to foster a new cooperation model adapted to the pandemic situation and deepen coordination between the BRI and national development strategies to maintain the stability of regional industrial and supply chains and unleash the full potential of regional cooperation.
This Meeting on Trade and Connectivity was a new exploration by the seven countries to enhance solidarity and cooperation and jointly deal with the current challenges amid the changing international and regional landscape as well as the COVID-19 situation.it reflects their shared aspiration of working together for sustainable development. China will work with other parties to make good use of this platform and advance regional cooperation, the spokedperson added.
Earlier, China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and the bilateral relations between the two countries have become even stronger in economic and trade development, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Hua Chunying said on Friday.
“China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners. The bilateral relations have become even stronger in economic and trade development,” she said in response to a question.
In particular, CPEC, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as an important pilot project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation and a flagship for bilateral cooperation, has registered new progress in its building and generated more and more social benefits, she added.
Hua Chunying said that the Chinese side stood ready to work together with Pakistan to advance cooperation in Belt and Road initiative, facilitate the high-quality building of CPEC, enhance policy communication, connectivity, trade, investment, and people-to-people exchanges for both sides in all sectors, so as to jointly achieve greater development and bring more benefits to the two peoples.According to statistics, the exports from Pakistan to China have increased by 30 percent month on month in November 2020, improving trade balance between the two countries.
Under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Phase-II signed between the two countries, China has expanding more market access to Pakistani products.
