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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said he wished to further boost relations between his country and China in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Monday before his China visit.
"My expectation is to deepen and broaden our partnership and our cooperation with China. We have common interest, and we face common threats, the question of threats brings us to cooperate on peace and security," the president said.
The Afghan president left here for a four-day state visit to China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday night.
Thanking China for inviting him for a state visit, President Ahmadzai said that President Xi has emphasized that China's neighboring countries should join hands and benefit from China's growth.
"China is a very strong investor in Afghanistan's mining and gas and oil sector, we have a very major natural wealth and we hope that with cooperation of China and other countries' companies, and major international companies, we become a center of services in mining industry," President Ahmadzai added.
Expressing optimism about the future of Sino-Afghan trade and economic ties, President Ahmadzai said, "We see Afghanistan as a hub for regional trade and investment, and because of this, our cooperation with China will be based on the bilateral level where our mutual relations, country to country, state to state, and society to society, are going to be expanded."
On the connectivity and cooperation with China, the president said the idea of Silk Road economic belt is going to be vital, noting the historical Silk Road during the Yuan Dynasty(1206-1368 AD) forged an inter-Asian trading system, where China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Afghanistan and India were linked together.
China is one of the greatest civilizations that human history has produced, the Afghan president said, adding that "a deep understanding of China will bring us enormous benefit."
On the cultural exchanges between the two countries, he said, " We will be delighted that Chinese youth are learning Pushtu and Dari. My hope and aspiration is that thousands of Afghans will learn Chinese so that we can communicate with each other."
The president expressed the hope that young Chinese learning Pushtu and Dari will spend part of their career in Afghanistan and Afghans learning Chinese will become bridges with China and have part of their careers in China.
"I spent part of my career in China," the Afghan president said, referring to his experience of serving as a World Bank official to visit China several times.
