UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called on the international community to engage with Afghanistan's Taliban.
"The international community should remain engaged with the Afghan interim government in a pragmatic manner, carry out positive interactions, provide patient guidance, enhance mutual understanding and trust, and help the Afghan interim government build inclusive and moderate governance," said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.
It is not constructive to keep accusing or pressuring the Afghan interim government or even to instrumentalize the issue of travel ban exemptions as a bargaining chip for negotiations. Such a move will only make the door to dialogue narrower and deepen confrontation and divergences, he told a Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.
The past 20 years have once again proved that military intervention and external models simply do not work and that the future of Afghanistan can only be decided by the Afghan people themselves. The international community should fully draw lessons from the past 20 years, and not just pay lip service to the phrase "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," but should put it into practice, he said.
The international community should make it a top priority to help Afghanistan alleviate its humanitarian crisis and stabilize the economy, and should not politicize humanitarian and economic issues, nor link humanitarian aid and economic development with other political issues, said Geng, adding Afghanistan's frozen overseas assets should be used expeditiously for the improvement of Afghans' life and economic reconstruction.
The security, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, and refugee issues facing the country are intertwined, and require a comprehensive approach to find solutions at the root, he said.
"We hope that the Afghan Taliban will genuinely fulfill their commitments, completely cut off their ties with all terrorist groups, and work together with the international community to resolutely combat the Islamic State, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and other terrorist groups, so as to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a hub for terrorism again," said Geng.
In the long run, all parties need to help Afghanistan restore its domestic market, integrate into regional cooperation and connectivity, thoroughly eradicate the root causes of unrest, and embark on the path to lasting peace and development, he said. ■
