Pakistan and China call for 'visible and verifiable' steps against Afghan-based terror groups

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan and China called for more “visible and verifiable” steps to eliminate terrorist organizations based in Afghanistan and to prevent Afghan territory from being used for militancy against any country, according to a joint statement.

The statement issued Monday followed talks between Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, who met in Beijing on Dec. 4.

The two countries said “terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan continue to pose serious threats to regional and global security and stressed the need to prevent them from using Afghan soil to carry out attacks against other countries."

There was no immediate response from Afghanistan's government in Kabul.

China praised Pakistan for what it described as “comprehensive counterterrorism measures” and for protecting Chinese citizens and projects related to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, a program of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Thousands of Chinese workers and engineers are engaged in CPEC-related projects involving improvements to road and rail links between China’s western Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea. In 2024, five Chinese people were killed when a suicide car bomber hit a bus in northwest Pakistan.

In August, top diplomats from Pakistan, China and Afghanistan met in Kabul and pledged to work toward extending the CPEC to Afghanistan, but the effort has not visibly advanced.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers of sheltering the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which has been blamed for attacks inside Pakistan that have increased since 2021. The TTP is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban, which has governed the country since 2021 and says it does not allow its territory to be used for attacks against other countries.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have persisted since early October when Pakistan carried out airstrikes on what it described as Pakistani Taliban hideouts inside Afghanistan, killing dozens of alleged insurgents.

Afghan forces retaliated by targeting Pakistani military posts and claimed to have killed 58 soldiers. Pakistan acknowledged losing 23 troops.

The fighting stopped after Qatar brokered a ceasefire in its capital Doha. The agreement was followed by more talks in Istanbul, which failed to produce additional results.