China and Afghanistan sign landmark deals

[din]

China and Afghanistan sign landmark deals
China's domestic security chief signs economic agreements and pledges to help "train, fund and equip Afghan police".

Last Modified: 23 Sep 2012 14:53

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Zhou Yongkang has overseen a crackdown on separatist movements in a region that borders Afghanistan [Reuters]


For the first time in nearly 50 years, a senior Chinese official has visited Afghanistan and signed a series of agreements in an example of increased foreign interest in the nation ahead of the planned withdrawal of US troops by 2014.
Zhou Yongkang, China's domestic security chief, met President Hamid Karzai at his garden palace in Kabul, state media said on Sunday.
Zhou made the four-hour visit the day before - a secretive trip not announced beforehand - aimed at shoring up ties between the neighbours, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The new security and commercial agreements were not specific, Reuters news agency reported, although Zhou pledged to help "train, fund and equip Afghan police".
The last senior Chinese official to visit Afghanistan was President Liu Shaoqi, in 1966, Xinhua said.
Beijing has stepped up diplomacy with Afghanistan in recent months as the deadline for the withdrawal of US and NATO forces draws nearer.

'Strategic partnership'
From the perspective of one neighbourhood in Herat China, which shares a 76km border with Afghanistan's far northeast, has already secured major oil and copper mining concessions in Afghanistan, which is believed to have more than $1 trillion worth of minerals.
Xinhua provided few details about the visit.
"It is in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples for China and Afghanistan to strengthen a strategic and co-operative partnership ... conducive to regional peace, stability and development," Zhou said, according to the report.
Zhou, a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee of China's ruling Communist Party, has overseen a crackdown on unrest in his nation's Muslim-populated Xinjiang region, which borders Afghanistan.
Zhou's appearance in Kabul comes after Karzai pledged to work with China to fight "terrorism and extremism" in the region during a visit to Beijing in June, where he attended the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation meeting.
The grouping, which is led by China and Russia and was set up to counterbalance US and NATO influence, granted Afghanistan observer status at the meeting.

[Tor Gul]

whoever they work with to extract their mineral wealth Afghanistan NEEDS to ensure they do it in a way that doesn't leave the water poisoned like it is in the USA.

[ډګروال]

whoever they work with to extract their mineral wealth Afghanistan NEEDS to ensure they do it in a way that doesn't leave the water poisoned like it is in the USA.

and 80% /20% deal.
80% for AFG offcourse.

otherwise we will be worse off than africa.

personally i dont trust these deals and i think AFG should have sort of neutrality and nationalize the resources.

[Tor Gul]

and 80% /20% deal.
80% for AFG offcourse.

otherwise we will be worse off than africa.

personally i dont trust these deals and i think AFG should have sort of neutrality and nationalize the resources.

i'm sorry, i wasn't clear.
i wasn't talking about the profit split, i meant the actual pollution. in the USA 80-90% of the surface water is polluted w/poisons that are in the fish & eating the fish can make you sick, give you cancer & cause birth defects to babies inside their mothers.

[Toramana]

China's security boss surveys Hindu Kush
By M K Bhadrakumar

For such a high-level exchange after such a pronounced gap of nearly half a century, Beijing actually said very little indeed about the unannounced four-hour visit to Kabul on Saturday by Zhou Yongkang, the ninth ranking member of the Politburo and China's security boss - although it pointedly took note that the "last [such] visit was made by late Chinese leader Liu Shaoqi in 1966 when he was the President of China".

Zhou's senior status make Beijing's reticence seem all the more curious, particularly as the Hindu Kush and the adjoining Pamirs and the Centr

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NI27Ad02.html