Joint Press Release by China, Afghanistan and Pakistan

June 25,2017

At the invitation of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China visited the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from June 24th to 25th. During this visit, the three parties condemned the recent terrorist attacks occurred in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and extended condolences to the deceased and sympathy to the affected people. The three parties had in-depth exchange of views on the Afghan issue, the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan and China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral cooperation, and reached consensus on the following points: 

1. The three parties are all committed to maintaining regional peace and stability, enhancing regional connectivity and economic cooperation and promoting shared security and development. 

2. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan are willing to improve relations with each other, strengthen political mutual trust, enhance cooperation in various fields including counter-terrorism, and jointly meet security challenges. The Chinese side hopes Afghanistan and Pakistan could maintain stable and sound relations, and is willing to provide necessary assistance in this regard based on the needs of both sides. 

3. Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to establish a crisis management mechanism, which will include prevention through timely and effective intelligence and information sharing and other mutually agreed measures. This would enable the two sides to maintain timely and effective communications in case of any emergencies, including terrorist attacks, with a view to seeking proper solution through dialogue and consultation and preventing deterioration of the situation which might have negative effect on the bilateral relationship. The Chinese side will support this mechanism. 

4. The three parties agree to establish the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' dialogue mechanism to cooperate on issues of mutual interest, beginning with economic cooperation. 

5. The three parties believe that peace and reconciliation is the fundamental solution to the Afghan issue, which could not be solved by violent means. The Chinese side and the Pakistani side support the "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned" reconciliation process, and stand ready to continue to play a constructive role in advancing this process. The three parties call on the Afghan Taliban to join the reconciliation process at an early date. 

6. The three parties believe that the Quadrilateral Coordination Group should be revived to create an enabling environment for peace talks and for Taliban to join the peace talks. 

7. The three parties support the Kabul process and hold the view that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization-Afghanistan Contact Group should be revived as early as possible to play a constructive role in moving forward the Afghan reconciliation process.