A signing ceremony was held here Wednesday for China's donation of 1 million U.S. dollars in cash for quake relief in Afghanistan.
A 7.5-magnitude devastating earthquake struck northeastern Afghanistan in late October this year, leaving more than one hundred people dead and over 500 injured. Thousands of houses collapsed during the earthquake.
Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao announced this 1 million U.S. dollar assistance during his one-day visit to Kabul in early November.
During the signing ceremony, Yao Jing, Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, said China sees Afghanistan as a close and friendly neighbor. Afghan people are friends and brothers of the Chinese, he asserted.
Chinese people share the same feelings with Afghan people when hit by natural disasters, and China is always on standby when Afghan brothers are in need, the ambassador said.
Besides expressing his condolences to the earthquake victims, Yao added that China is willing to expand cooperation with Afghanistan in vast areas, including trade, technology exchanges and disaster reliefs.
Wais Ahmad Barmak, Afghan state minister for disaster management and humanitarian affairs, expressed his gratitude to China.
He said that Afghan people and government were thankful to China for its continuous assistance in the socio-economic development over the past years.
"I want to express our appreciation and gratitude to the Chinese government and people for the support China has been providing to Afghanistan since the earthquake took place. China was the first to provide aid to Afghans on that hard time," Barmak said.
According to the agreement, the 1 million U.S. dollars will be specifically used for victims' resettlement and the cash will be officially handed over to Afghanistan before the end of January next year.
Besides the 1 million U.S. dollars in cash, the Chinese government also provided Afghanistan with emergency humanitarian relief supplies with the total value of 10 million yuan, or 1.56 million US dollars.
