China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Sartaj Aziz, advisor to Pakistan's prime minister on foreign affairs, on Sunday in Islamabad to discuss peace and stability in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Aziz said: “Pakistan has consistently emphasized that peace and stability in Afghanistan is in our interest and a stable Afghanistan would help us promote our shared agenda of economic development and regional connectivity.
"Towards this end, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China have agreed to strengthen mutual cooperation and coordination in dealing with the common challenges to peace and security," he said.
Pakistan, Afghanistan and China have agreed to strengthen mutual cooperation and coordination "in dealing with the common challenges to peace and security," a Pakistani official reiterated.
"Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have expressed the interest that China should play a curtain role, and that is the indicator of the high level of interest both countries have placed in China. China of course is ready to play a constructive role in political relations," Wang said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have long accused each other of turning a blind eye to militants operating along their porous border.
The comments come a day after Wang visited Kabul on Saturday to follow up on agreements signed between the Afghan and Chinese presidents earlier this month.
On arrival, he met with Afghan acting foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani and number of other officials where they discussed the agreements forged between the Afghan and Chinese presidents at Shanghai Summit in Astana earlier this month.
At the time, President Ashraf Ghani and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to the need for a joint fight against terrorism and extremism, to expand both regional cooperation and China’s support in the Afghan peace process.
“China’s foreign minister said in his meeting with Rabbani he is in Kabul to follow up on the agreements made in Astana between Afghanistan and China on the joint-anti terrorism and extremism fight, China’s support to the Afghan peace process, on regional cooperation and on expanding bilateral cooperation between the two countries,” read a statement issued by the Afghan foreign affairs ministry.
According to the statement, Wang assured the Afghan foreign minister that China will support the Kabul Process so as to make the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process a success.
Rabbani meanwhile said that in order to have peace and stability in Afghanistan, regional cooperation and consensus was needed. He said China has played a good role in regional cooperation in this regard.