China, Russia, India consult on Afghanistan

Chinese, Russian and Indian diplomats met in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss helping stabilize Afghanistan, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson revealed on Friday.

Hua Chunying said the trilateral meeting was chaired by India's Deputy National Security Advisor Arvind Gupta, and attended by Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao and Deputy Secretary of Russia's Security Council Yevgeny Lukyanov.

All three sides agreed the future development of Afghanistan is closely related to regional peace and security, and vowed to play constructive roles to support its reconciliation and reconstruction, according to Hua.

The spokesperson said they will aim for closer coordination on the issue and give full play to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Istanbul Process, the only Afghanistan-related cooperation mechanism led by countries in the region.

The Istanbul Process has identified a number of confidence-building measures in areas including counterterrorism, drug control, disaster management, trade and investment opportunities, regional infrastructure construction and education to be jointly implemented by a number of countries and organizations involved in the collective.