ISLAMABAD: In a joint appeal, Pakistan and China on Tuesday urged the international community to help the Afghan people as well as the new Kabul administration to rebuild the war-torn country.

The world attention was drawn by the two countries towards the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan after Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on telephone to wish him on the centenary of the Communist Party of China.

The two leaders also felicitated each other on the important milestone of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their two countries, reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral strategic cooperative partnership and discussed the regional and international situation.

Prime Minister Khan also telephoned President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and congratulated him on winning the presidential elections for the second term.

During their conversation, President Xi and PM Khan called on the international community to extend immediate humanitarian and economic assistance to the people of Afghanistan in order to alleviate their suffering, prevent instability and flight of people. They also asked the world to continue engagement with Kabul to rebuild Afghanistan.

The prime minister appreciated China’s successful containment of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as its relief and assistance measures for the developing countries, including vaccine cooperation with Pakistan.

Taking stock of the negative impact of coronavirus on global economy, the two leaders agreed on further strengthening bilateral economic and commercial ties, including full realisation of the potential offered by Phase-II of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, to overcome economic headwinds.

Mr Khan lauded the successful, timely and high-quality implementation of the CPEC projects and welcomed Chinese investments in the CPEC special economic zones.

He said early start of work on the ML-1 railway project would complement Pakistan’s geo-economic vision for national and regional development. He also appreciated China’s leading role in combating climate change and briefed President Xi on Pakistan’s wide ranging measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation, including the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ initiative.

Both leaders agreed to strengthen Pakistan-China cooperation in relevant areas and promote CPEC’s green development as a high quality demonstration of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The prime minister highlighted the need to continue with the momentum of high-level exchanges to further diversify ‘All Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’ between the two countries.

He also renewed his invitation to President Xi to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience.

Pakistan and China are longtime allies and have sent humanitarian aid to Kabul over the past two months.

According to media reports, the Taliban government does not have access to the Afghanistan Central Bank’s $9 billion in reserves, most of which are held by the New York Federal Reserve.