China and Pakistan agree to extend their joint infrastructure macro-project to Afghanistan

May 7. (EUROPE PRESS) –

China and Pakistan have reached an agreement to extend to Afghanistan the so-called China-Pakistani Economic Corridor, the extraordinary infrastructure project that Beijing is developing in Asia and which could provide an enormous boost to the devastated Afghan economy.

The agreement, reached in Islamabad by foreign ministers Qin Gang and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, “commits China and Pakistan to develop humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people through the development of bilateral cooperation and, in particular, the CPEC corridor.” , according to the statement collected by the Afghan chain Tolo News .

The Taliban have been negotiating for months to join this trade network while the United States and its allies have refused to lift sanctions on the fundamentalist regime after it recaptured the country.

The agreement has been ratified by the Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Jan Muttaqi, also present in Islamabad. In an account of their meeting, China’s state broadcaster CGTN reported that Qin asked the Taliban for “advancement in the China-Pakistan-Afghanistan cooperation dialogue on the principles of mutual benefit and win-win results.”

“China will, as always, respect Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields to help Afghanistan achieve self-reliance, peace, stability, development and prosperity at an early date. “, according to the Chinese minister.

The Chinese and Pakistani ministers also stressed the need to unfreeze Afghanistan’s financial assets abroad. It should be recalled that the US has blocked the Taliban’s access to some $9 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank reserves abroad for fear that the funds will be used for terrorist activities.

Washington initially agreed to release half to boost the economy, but called it off after the Taliban imposed school and work restrictions on Afghan women last year.