China’s President Xi Jinping has said that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member nations should focus on the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group in order to help facilitate peace and reconstruction in the war-weary country.

“We need to give full play to the role of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group to facilitate peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan,” said Xi.

Speaking  at the 18th SCO Qingdao summit, Xi said China is ready to train law enforcement officers for all parties in the next three years.

“China offers to train 2,000 law enforcement officers for all parties in the next three years through China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation and other platforms to enhance law enforcement capacity building,” said Xi.

“The Taliban and other terrorist groups recently became powerful in Afghanistan particularly in the northern parts of the country bordering Tajikistan. If these destructive forces make their way to the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, they will pose serious threats to us. Therefore all countries need to expand their cooperation with Afghanistan to resolve this issue. The SCO-contact group should start the cooperation between the member countries as soon as possible,” said Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

Meanwhile, senators in Afghanistan’s Meshrano Jirga (Upper House of Parliament) have said that the implications of the SCO summit at this juncture will be helpful for Afghanistan in promoting peace and stability.

President Ashraf Ghani has been representing Afghanistan at the summit.

“President should talk with the Russian and Iranian officials about the reports we have about these countries in Afghanistan. He should ask China to cooperate with Afghanistan for peace,” said Senator Shafiqullah Hashimi.

“We hope that the president returns from this meeting with achievements and makes Afghanistan a permanent member of this organization,” said Senator Lailuma Ahmadi.

SCO leaders also pledged to work toward fighting terrorism, boosting the infrastructure of their economies and fighting extremism and separatism.

“We need to strengthen the foundation for shared peace and security. We need to actively implement the 2019-2021 program of cooperation for combating "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, continue to conduct the "Peace Mission" and other joint counter-terrorism exercises, and enhance cooperation on defense security, law enforcement security and information security,” added Xi.

On the role of observer nations at SCO, Xi said: “… we need to expand partnership networks of international cooperation. By intensifying exchanges and cooperation with SCO observer states, dialogue partners, and other countries in our region, by enhancing partnerships with the United Nations and other international and regional organizations, and by engaging in dialogue with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, we can contribute our share to resolving hotspot issues and improving global governance.”

Meanwhile, the Presidential Palace said in a statement that at his meeting with Ghani, the Chinese president pledged to expand China’s cooperation with Afghanistan so that it can achieve peace and stability.

“China’s president hailed President Ashraf Ghani’s peace and economic initiatives and expressed his full support to the ceasefire. He said that Taliban’s endorsement of the temporary ceasefire is good news for the region,” said the statement.

“We are heading closer to our objective for peace and the cooperation by the friendly countries has been pushing us closer to this objective,” read the statement quoting Ghani.