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NEW DELHI: China has reached out to India to create joint projects in South Asia similar to Sino-Indian joint projects in Afghanistan.Speaking at the launch of joint Indo-China project for training Afghan diplomats in New Delhi on Monday, Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui suggested that China-India Plus cooperation should be extended from Afghanistan to other countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Iran and Myanmar.He further said that both sides should join under the mechanism of SAARC, BIMSTEC and BCIM to promote regional peace, stability and prosperity. Sources here indicated that India is not in favour of expansion of SAARC to include China, and BIMSTEC is being strengthened as a sub-regional organisation amid Chinese inroads.And BCIM, or Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, has not made much progress. Last week, China reached out to India seeking to join hands amid trade war with the US.“The training programme is the first step for China-India Plus cooperation in Afghanistan. China and India have respective advantages.For example, India has remarkable edge in agriculture and medical services, and China in hybrid rice and poverty reduction. I am sure that in future, China-India cooperation in Afghanistan will span from training programme to more concrete projects,” said Luo.ET was the first to report that India and China will launch a project to jointly train Afghan diplomats as the first initiative under Sino-Indian joint projects for the landlocked country.India and China, as decided by PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at the Wuhan Summit, hopes to undertake joint projects in three sectors in Afghanistan — health, education and food security — which are people-centric and noncontroversial in nature.These projects, which aim to improve the lives of Afghans, can pave the way for joint Indo-Afghan connectivity project through Afghanistan connecting China with Iran in the future.However, the proposed connectivity project is unlikely to be included in the Belt & Road Initiative due to India’s strong reservations against China’s mega project that seeks to connect Asia’s biggest country with the rest of the continent, Africa and Europe.Pointing out that China and India share a lot of common interests and similar stance on the Afghanistan issue, the envoy said: “Both of us support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace reconciliation process.Both of us uphold that Afghanistan should realise peace, stability and prosperity. Both of us are against terrorism.” “…A lot of consensuses are being implemented now.At the end of this week, Chinese state Councillor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi will visit India. President Xi and Prime Minister Modi will meet for the fourth time this year in Argentina in November.