China and Afghanistan should deepen cooperation under the Belt and Road framework and push forward projects to connect the two countries more, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday.

In a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Astana, Kazakhstan, at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Xi hailed the ties between the two nations.

The president said that high-level interaction should play an important role in guiding China-Afghan relations and that exchanges on all levels should be intensified.

China supports the Afghan government's efforts to maintain its domestic security, Xi said, adding that China will continue to help Afghanistan's reconstruction. The two countries should enhance anti-terrorism and security cooperation, he said.

Xi said that China firmly maintains a friendly policy toward Afghanistan. China would like to play a constructive role to support Afghanistan in conducting peaceful reconstruction and advancing reconciliation, he said.

Ghani expressed gratitude for China's support of his country's peaceful reconstruction and reconciliation process, saying that Afghanistan cherishes its friendship with China.

The Afghan president said his country values China's important role in international and regional affairs, and is dedicated to cooperation with China in areas like the economy, trade and security.

Afghanistan also looks forward to connecting the country's development with construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, he said, adding the country will participate with China to boost connections between the two nations.

Chen Yurong, a senior researcher in European and Asian studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said China has been dedicated to promoting Afghanistan's reconciliation process by making use of the multilateral mechanism.

Afghanistan is along the corridor that links Central Asia with South Asia, and the geographic location provides huge potential for the two countries to cooperate on the Belt and Road Initiative, Chen said.

Sun Zhuangzhi, secretary-general of the SCO Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China and Afghanistan can strengthen cooperation on infrastructure construction under the Belt and Road Initiative's framework.

Infrastructure in Afghanistan has collapsed under years of conflict, he said, and China can help Afghanistan rebuild its railways, highways and hydraulic engineering, and cooperate in mining, agriculture and investment.

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(China Daily 06/09/2017 page3)