PM Shehbaz’s China visit to become a milestone in bilateral relations: Chinese envoy
ISLAMABAD (APP) - Chinese Ambassador in Pakistan Jiang Zaidong said on Monday that under the guidance of two leadership and strong support from the people of both countries, the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to China would achieve complete success and become a milestone in the development of China-Pakistan relations.
The ambassador in an interview, a day before the prime minister’s five-day visit from June 4-8, 2024 to China, said that all preparatory works had entered the final stage, and discussions on Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were in full progress.
At the invitation of Premier Li Qiang, Prime Minister Shehbaz will pay an official visit to China. This is his first visit to China after assuming the office this year. Highlighting the components of the visit, he said the prime minister would meet and have talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Zhao Leji.
The leaders will have an in-depth exchange of views on China-Pakistan relations and issues of mutual interest, and jointly draw up a blueprint for the growth of bilateral relations. In addition to Beijing, the prime minister will visit Guangdong and Shaanxi. “China stands ready to work with Pakistan through this visit to make greater progress in our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and take new steps in building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era,” the envoy remarked.
Calling China and Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partners and ironclad friends, he said: “Our friendship has stood the test of time and remained rock-solid and – to use a Chinese expression – ‘steady as Mount Tai’. He said in recent years, both countries had close high-level exchanges, conducted fruitful and high-quality cooperation on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and maintained sound communication and coordination in international and regional affairs. Regarding CPEC, he said the landmark BRI project brought a total of US $25.4 billion in direct investment, 236,000 jobs, 510km of highways, more than 8,000 megawatts of electricity and 886km of core transmission network, generating a strong impetus to Pakistan’s economic and social development.
Under the second phase of CPEC, he said both countries would implement the important consensus reached by their leaders including the strengthening synergy of development strategies and policy coordination and accelerate progress on mega projects including upgradation of ML-1, the Gwadar Port and realignment of Karakoram Highway Phase II.
Moreover, the two countries will strengthen cooperation in industry, agriculture, mining, new energy, information technology and other fields based on local conditions and further negotiate and promote trade liberalization.
