On July 2, 2018, led by Mr. Azizullah Omar, Deputy Director of the Department for Policy Planning at the Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the delegation of Afghanistan think-tanks visited SIIS. SIIS President Chen Dongxiao met with the delegation.

The delegation also had a meeting with SIIS scholars including Dr. Ye Qing, SIIS Assistant President, Dr. Qiang Xiaoyun, Deputy Director of the Center for Russian & Central Asian Studies, Dr. Liu Zongyi, research fellow of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, and Mr. Zhou Yiqi, research fellow of the Center for West Asian & African Studies. The two sides had a discussion on China-Afghanistan relations and the security situation in South Asia.