Saturday, August 06, 2016
Kabul (BNA) In a quadrilateral meeting held among senior military officials of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and China in Urumqi, the four sides have reached an agreement on jointly fighting terrorism, Bakhtar News Agency (BNA) reported.
Military officials of the four countries gathered on August 4 in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang to announce the alliance, the report further said.
Known as the Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism, the alliance is meant to bring together the member states in areas of counterterrorism and intelligence, the report added.
Afghanistan and Pakistan, both already U.S. allies in the war on terror, have faced violence from insurgent groups such as IS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban for more than a decade.
China is also working with Pakistan and the United States to broker so far fruitless peace talks to end a Taliban insurgency that has raged for 15 years in Afghanistan, the report continued.
U.S. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner said Washington welcomed the new alliance as a “positive” for the region.
