Nadeem meets Chinese envoy, calls for more student scholarships

The Higher Education Minister of the Islamic Emirate Mawlavi Neda Mohammad Nadeem met with China’s Ambassador to Kabul Wang Yu on Monday to discuss various issues including education.

At the meeting, Nadeem thanked China for its cooperation in the sectors of trade, industry and higher education, the ministry said in a statement.

He also acknowledged Afghanistan and China’s historic ties and their current relations, which he said he hoped would continue.

“Challenges facing Afghan students in China should be resolved and for further strengthening the two countries’ relations, more Afghan students should be provided with scholarships and educational opportunities in that country,” the statement quoted Nadeem as saying.

Meanwhile, Wang noted the accomplishments achieved by the IEA in the past year and assured Nadeem that Beijing would continue its cooperation with Afghanistan and provide more scholarships and education opportunities to Afghan students, the statement read.

This comes after Nadeem met with Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, on the same day and emphasized the need for both countries to respect each other and to foster stronger ties.

The ministry tweeted that the meeting took place in Kabul and that Nadeem reiterated the importance of Afghan culture being respected.

“Afghans live in a traditional society, the Islamic Emirate does not allow anyone to criticize the culture and ideas of Afghans and is committed to this goal in implementing Islamic affairs,” said Nadeem.

At the meeting, Nadeem spoke of the “cruelty and tyranny of the past governments and their international partners” and said the false defenders of human rights ignored their cruelty and crimes and now they are trying to interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs under various pretexts.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul also said that Afghanistan and Pakistan are two friendly countries with religious, and cultural commonalities.

“Considering common issues, we are more ready than others to cooperate with Afghanistan,” said Nizamani.