国际英语新闻:Afghanistan's future arrangements should be broadly representative: Chinese envoy

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese UN envoy said on Thursday that Afghanistan's future arrangements should be broadly representative and inclusive.

"In our view, Afghanistan's future arrangements should be broadly representative and inclusive, so that all parties, ethnic groups, and religious sects in Afghanistan can participate on equal footing and share state power," Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council meeting on the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

"The international community should fully respect the will of the Afghan people, and ensure the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned negotiation process," said the envoy.

"No external forces should be allowed to impose their will or seek gains," Geng added.

Noting that the Afghan peace and reconciliation process "has now entered a period crucial to its future," Geng said that "China welcomes the first intra-Afghan negotiations launched in Doha on Sept. 12 and congratulates both sides on reaching an agreement on the rules and procedures for negotiations a few days ago."

"The next stage of negotiation will feature substantive discussions with a higher level of difficulty. Both sides need to show more political wisdom and resolve. The international community needs to increase its attention and input," Geng stressed.

"History has proven time and again that the Afghan issue can only be resolved by political means," said the envoy.

He underscored that the use of force will only plunge the country deeper into war. "We hope that the two sides will consolidate the positive momentum, remain constructive and perseverant in talks, striving for an outcome in favor of peace, and find an effective political solution at an early date."

Talking about the security situation, Geng said that violence in Afghanistan "remains unrelenting."

He cited the UN secretary-general's report as stating that the number of recorded violent incidents in October this year was the highest since 2007.

"The international community should continue to support the Afghan security forces in strengthening capacity building, combating terrorism, protecting civilians and improving the security situation," said Geng.

"China calls on all parties in Afghanistan to respond positively to secretary-general's call for global ceasefire and stop the violence and hostilities without delay," the ambassador said.

"Under the current security situation, the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should be orderly and responsible, in order to avoid leaving a security vacuum to the detriment of the national interests of Afghanistan and regional countries," he added.

On the remarks by Shkula Zadran, Afghanistan's youth representative to the United Nations, Geng said that Zadran "denounced the various types of criminal acts committed by foreign troops in Afghanistan."

"This has reflected the will of the Afghan people and opinions of the Afghan public. All the criminal acts need to be thoroughly investigated," the envoy stressed.

"All perpetrators need to be brought to justice. The international community should do justice to the Afghan people," he added.

Geng said that China attaches great importance to the unique role of youth in Afghanistan.

"We express our sympathies to the sufferings of the Afghan youth. We call for a greater role of Afghan youth in the peace and security and reconciliation process of Afghanistan, as well as in the economic and social development in the country," he added.

"Over the years, China has been supporting the development of Afghan youth, helping them tackle health, education, employment and other issues. In recent years, with our help, a number of projects, including the Afghan national vocational and technical college, the comprehensive teaching building of Kabul University, have been launched," he said, adding that since 2017, nearly 200 Afghan children with congenital heart disease, have received treatment in China and been provided with a complete set of post-operative rehabilitation examinations.

"This has been widely applauded across the Afghan society. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has provided several shipments of anti-pandemic supplies to Afghanistan, sent medical teams there, and will continue to provide more support and help, so that Afghan people, including its young people, can finally emerge from the shadows of the virus," the envoy further elaborated.

Turning to the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee, Geng said that the committee "has played an important role in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan."

"China supports the committee's continued performance of its duties as mandated by the Security Council, contributing to peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. China supports renewal of its monitoring team's mandate," he added.

The Security Council on Thursday convened its quarterly meeting on Afghanistan via videoconference. Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, briefed on recent developments and the secretary-general's Dec. 9 report on UNAMA.

The progress in the Afghan peace process was a focus of the meeting. The intra-Afghan negotiations that started in Doha, Qatar, on Sept. 12, had stalled for more than two months as the negotiation teams of the Afghan government and the Taliban failed to agree on the procedural rules for the talks.