January 24, 2002	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 9, 1422

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BEIJING, Jan 23: Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji told interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on Wednesday that China would do what it could to help rebuild its war-torn neighbour, where instability and a growing US presence have made Beijing uneasy.

Karzai arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for talks with Chinese leaders, fresh from Tokyo where international donors had promised more than $4.5 billion in aid. Afghan and Chinese foreign ministers signed agreements on Beijing’s own modest aid package.

“The Chinese government has followed with a great interest the peace and reconstruction process in Afghanistan. Our two countries are neighbours to each other, although our border is a short one,” Zhu told Karzai.

“China is ready to provide assistance to the best of our ability to your effort of reconstruction,” he added.

China offered $1 million for rebuilding Afghanistan in addition to 30 million yuan ($3.6 million) in humanitarian aid due to arrive soon.

China’s leaders were keen to see peace and stability return to Afghanistan and were likely to ask Karzai about Afghanistan’s position on the US military presence in his country, a western diplomat said.

“I should think they’d be interested in seeing the country get back to some sort of stable government quite soon,” she said.

“It’s quite obvious that the West is going to be playing a large role in it. China can’t do anything about that. I suppose all it can do is keep watching and just keep its finger in the pie,” she said.

CHINA SEES TALIBAN LINK: meeting with Zhu marked with broad smiles and relaxed humour, Karzai said the Afghan delegation had jumped at the chance to come to China.

“Chinese-Afghan relations are very, very old,” Karzai said. “So old that we thought green tea was Afghan. Now we know it is Chinese.”

In spite of the jovial atmosphere, China has clear concerns about the stability of its neighbour.

China shares a narrow and remote border with Afghanistan, where it says hundreds of Muslims connected to a small separatist movement in its far western region of Xinjiang were trained under the former ruling Taliban.

Foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi has said Karzai and Chinese leaders might touch on the US presence in Afghanistan. “We have taken note that the US side has expressed on many occasions that it does not hope to have a long-term military presence in Central Asia,” he told reporters. —Reuters