By Fu Xiaoqiang
Afghan President Hamid Karzai started his second official visit
to China Sunday after attending the summit of the Shanghai
Co-operation Organization (SCO) as a guest.
He told Chinese journalists that Afghanistan is willing to
develop all-round friendly relations with China, a good neighbor
and friend, which has contributed significantly to Afghanistan's
reconstruction over the past four years.
His wishes accord with China's diplomatic strategy with regard
to relations with neighboring countries being a good neighbor to
surrounding nations and helping make them prosper. Promoting
co-operation in various fields with Afghanistan, an important
neighbor, facilitates regional stability and security in China's
western regions.
Things have changed since Karzai's first China visit four years
ago. Reconstruction in Afghanistan, for instance, has been going
well. The country's new constitution has been enacted and
presidential and parliamentary elections were successfully staged,
with the help of the international community.
As a result, Afghanistan has become a normal country with a
basically complete political infrastructure. In addition, initial
economic recovery has been achieved.
Against this backdrop, Afghanistan is showing an ever-stronger
desire for more extensive co-operation with the South Asian and
Central Asian nations. The country is expected to soon become a
full member of the South Asian Association for Regional
Co-operation.
Karzai also expressed his wish to further expand his country's
co-operation with the SCO and its individual member states. As a
geopolitical hub wedged between the South, Central and West Asia,
Afghanistan is bound to play a bigger part in regional
co-operation.
As the SCO improves its functions and working mechanisms, it is
having a greater influence on Afghanistan. It is quite possible
that Afghanistan will ask for co-operation with the SCO in some
chosen areas in the near future.
Peace and reconstruction dictate that the neighboring nations in
the region are vitally important to Afghanistan, although the
United States remains the most influential player for the country
politically and militarily. It is only natural that Afghanistan
should not put all its eggs in the US basket. The country's desire
to be more independent and self-reliant will get ever stronger with
the unfolding of events in the regional political and economic
arenas.
SCO member states have carried out effective co-operation in
combating terrorism and extremism. Afghanistan, enormously haunted
by the same problems, has good reason to work in concert with the
SCO members in this regard. This also serves US interests in this
region.
China is among those countries that first provided aid to
post-Taliban Afghanistan. As early as 2002, for example, China
pledged economic aid worth US$150 million to the country. China has
also become actively involved in the construction of highways,
water conservation projects, hospitals and other public
infrastructure. For example, Kandahar Hospital and the Parvan water
conservation project have become symbols of Sino-Afghan
friendship.
As an increasingly important global economic player, China
provides its neighbors with important opportunities and a vast
market. Karzai, in an interview with Chinese media, expressed his
hope that Afghanistan would benefit from China's economic growth,
with more and more Afghan commodities finding their way into the
Chinese market.
Taking all this into account, Karzai's current China visit has
very special connotations laying foundations for all-round
Sino-Afghan co-operation, pinpointing specific fields for
collaboration and, in turn, promoting common security and
co-prosperity.
China and Afghanistan have never had any disputes with each
other, something that helps lay good foundations for co-operation.
The two nations have been developing their relations via equal
exchanges and mutually beneficial undertakings. Grape and carrot
planting techniques in China, for instance, were borrowed from
Afghanistan in ancient times.
Afghanistan is a staunchly independent nation that does not like
being dictated to by major powers.
At the same time, China's good-neighbor policy is in the
interest of Afghanistan and the Chinese aid is based on the
principles of equality and respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty.
This will be the guideline for future Sino-Afghan relations.
The visiting Afghan delegation is the largest since the founding
of the new government. Securing specific aid projects and
developing trade links constitute important aspects of Karzai's
China tour.
China is by far one of Afghanistan's most important trade
partners, being the third largest exporter to the latter after
Japan and Pakistan. But China imported just US$900,000 worth of
goods from Afghanistan last year. The huge potential in this regard
needs to be tapped.
It is advisable that China continues its involvement in the
infrastructure construction on the condition that the safety of
Chinese personnel is guaranteed and that Chinese enterprises are
encouraged to seek business opportunities in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, China may have a role to play in training the
technicians and managers desperately needed by Afghanistan for its
reconstruction and development. Expanding the enrolment of Afghan
students studying in Chinese universities is also an imperative
task.
At present, terrorism and drugs pose two major obstacles to
Afghan reconstruction. These are also destabilizing factors
affecting western China.
More opium is planted and more drugs are trafficked than before.
This has seriously affected the country's economic reconstruction
and the security situation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime predicts that Afghanistan's opium output in 2006 will hit
4,500 tons and that roughly 87 percent of the world's heroin will
originate from Afghanistan.
Driven by the huge profits brought by drugs, terrorist elements
and local armed bands are secretly engaged in opium planting, drug
processing and deals, with the money made from drug-related
activities used to fund the expansion of their forces. All this
makes the bad security situation even worse.
At the same time, drug processing and trafficking bring security
problems to Afghanistan's neighbors.
In view of all this, it is in the interest of all parties that
Afghanistan works in concert with the SCO or its individual member
states in combating organized crime, drug trafficking and weapons
smuggling. China and Afghanistan are expected to work more closely
in this regard, with the signing of a package of agreements during
Karzai's current China visit.
In addition, the two countries will possibly conduct
co-operation in the field of energy resources.
The SCO and the South Asian Association for Regional
Co-operation offer China and Afghanistan a platform for
co-operation. This all-round bilateral collaboration is not aimed
at any third party and there is no intention to rival other big
powers.
The author is an associate professor with the China
Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
(China Daily June 19, 2006)
