Mullah Baradar meets with visiting Chinese FM in Kabul

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Kabul on Thursday morning where he met Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials including acting deputy prime minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the office of the deputy prime minister confirmed.

During the meeting, Baradar assured China that no actions against China will be carried out from Afghanistan and instead Kabul only wants good relations.

“Afghanistan and China have good and historical relations, and Islamic Emirate wants expansion of these relations,” said Baradar.

Wang meanwhile praised the IEA for ensuring security in Afghanistan, and said China is ready to expand trade ties with Afghanistan.

According to a statement issued by the office of the deputy prime minister, China will invest in the mining and energy sectors in the country and will establish economic zones.

During the meeting, China’s FM said that “extraction of Mes Aynak will start soon.”

The Chinese foreign minister was welcomed to Afghanistan at the oKabul airport on Thursday. He was met by Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister.

Wang and Muttaqi also met for talks and discussed a number of issues, the deputy prime minister’s office said.

This comes after officials confirmed last week that China’s mining company Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC) will open an office in Kabul by the end of this month.

Esmatullah Burhan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said on Saturday that the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has assessed the agreement on Mes Aynak copper project in Logar province and has found no problems.

He said that mining at Mes Aynak, which holds an estimated 11.08 million tonnes of copper, will begin soon.

A consortium of MCC and Jiangxi Copper took on a 30-year lease for Mes Aynak in 2008. However, due to the unstable situation in Afghanistan, the mine has not been actively worked.