China to provide Afghanistan with $31 million worth of food and Covid vaccines

Hua Chunyin, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said the decision was announced during the first meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and would be “for emergency use to the Afghan people.”Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also announced that China will donate 3 million vaccine doses to Afghanistan in the first batch, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua. It is not clear when the vaccines are scheduled to be delivered.Chinese leaders have repeatedly said that China would share its coronavirus vaccines with the world, especially with lower income countries, and officials had Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover, Wang said the US should “assume their responsibilities” in the country by helping ensure its development and stability while “respecting the sovereignty and independence of Afghanistan,” Xinhua reported. On Tuesday, the Taliban Last week, a Taliban spokesperson called for closer relations with Beijing in an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.”China is a very important and strong country in our neighborhood, and we have had very positive and good relations with China in the past,” Zabihullah Mujahid said. “We want to make these relations even stronger and want to improve the mutual trust level.”China, however, has also benefited from the relative stability brought by the US over the past two decades. The nation is also particularly concerned that Afghanistan would become a base for terrorists and extremists fighting for the independence for the largely Muslim region of Xinjiang — a priority issue Wang raised with Taliban leaders during their July meeting.CNN’s Nectar Gan and Steve George contributed to this report.