US eyes more Chinese help in Afghanistan
- Source: Global Times
- [01:13 May 05 2010]
- Comments
By Liu Chang
The US is seeking common ground with China in South Asia, according to Robert O'Blake, Washington's assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs.
O'Blake, speaking at a press conference in Beijing Tuesday, referred to South Asia as a region of growing strategic importance for the US.
He said that one of Washington's highest strategic priorities is to help Afghanistan and Paki-stan disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates crawling along the two countries' border.
"This is an interest that China shares with the US and Pakistan," the assistant sec-retary said. "So we discussed ways that China can coordinate and contribute to international efforts in these two countries."
During his two-day visit to China, O'Blake met scholars from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, as well as Muratbek Sansyzbayevich Imanaliev, secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and Hu Zhengyue, China's assistant Foreign Minister.
O'Blake expressed his appreciation to SCO member states for their support to Afghanistan, their commitment to foster trade and regional economic cooperation, and fighting terrorism and extremism.
He mentioned that he had a wide range of talks with Chinese officials on topics such as common ground shared by Beijing and Washington, and finding ways for China to contribute more to stability in Asia, and to promote its development.
However, those discussions have not reached what O'Blake called "a detailed level."
"The purpose of the dialogue is to have a wide-ranging dialogue on all of the issues in South Asia - not just Afghanistan or Pakistan, but also India, the situation in Nepal, and the situation in Sri Lanka," he said. "A great deal of discussions were about that as well."
The two sides also discussed US President Barack Obama's plan to begin the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan beginning in July 2011, he said.
"We assured China that we are certainly not going to withdraw our forces precipitously," he said, adding that the timing would depend on the security situation on the ground, and the ability of internationally trained Afghan security forces to handle that situation.
AFP contributed to this story
