China, Russia discuss Afghanistan

By Amit Baruah

SHANGHAI, OCT. 17. China and Russia have agreed that any future dispensation in Afghanistan should enjoy broad support and represent all major ethnic groups in the embattled country.

The Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, and his Russian counterpart, Mr. Igor Ivanov, who met on the sidelines of the APEC Ministerial Meeting today, stressed that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should play its due role in the battle against terrorism.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that the two Ministers ``exchanged views on the political solution to the Afghanistan issue, saying that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan should be guaranteed, and that the future Government of Afghanistan should have a broad basis and extensive support and should be able to represent the interests of all Afghan ethnic groups''.

Clearly, China has a major stake in ensuring that any future dispensation in Afghanistan is ``friendly'' to it in that the Xinjiang region borders Afghanistan and is home to the country's minority Uighur Muslims. ``On international efforts to fight against terrorism, Tang reiterated China's principled stand that the Chinese Government is firmly opposed to any kind of terrorism,'' the news agency reported.

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Section  : International
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