China has called for greater counterterrorism cooperation with Afghanistan, including joint patrols along the narrow strip of land that forms their only shared border.
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“China supports the prompt resumption of bilateral patrols in the Wakhan Corridor to maintain peace and stability in the border region,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a meeting with the Afghan acting minister of interior affairs, Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip of mountainous Afghan territory that divides Tajikistan and Pakistan, including Pakistani-held parts of Kashmir, and includes a 74km (46-mile) border with China’s Xinjiang region.
Beijing has repeatedly voiced concerns that Uygur militants could cross from Afghanistan into Xinjiang through that route.
On Wednesday, on his first trip to the country since March 2022, Wang called on the Taliban government to combat terrorist groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Uygur separatist group.
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“We hope the Afghan side will continue to do its utmost to combat the ETIM terrorist forces, clearing obstacles and injecting momentum into the in-depth development of China-Afghanistan relations,” he told acting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.