Beijing: China on Thursday called for the lifting of sanctions against the Taliban-administered Afghanistan and urged the US not to use the frozen foreign exchange reserves of the war-torn country as a "bargaining chip" to exert political pressure on the hardline militant group.
Addressing the G20 Foreign Ministers via a video link, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also demanded the rushing of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan without any delay.
"Humanitarian assistance is a task which brooks no delay. We should redouble efforts on and speed up the provision of assistance to Afghanistan, and in particular, lend the Afghan people a helping hand in time to address their most urgent needs, a foreign ministry statement quoted Wang as saying.
He highlighted China's decision to provide 200-million-yuan (USD 31 million) aid, which included three million vaccines.
Wang also asked the US to release frozen foreign reserves of Afghanistan's central
bank.