ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 28 (NNN-PPI) – Chinese Vice President, Wang Qishan, visited Pakistan from Sunday to Tuesday (today), and held meetings with Pakistani President, Arif Alvi, and Prime Minister, Imran Khan, on further strengthening bilateral relations.
When meeting with the Pakistani president, Wang said, China and Pakistan are “iron friends.” Throughout the past 68 years, since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have always respected and supported each other, on issues concerning each others’ core interests, forging the sincerest friendship.
In recent years, the development of China-Pakistan relations has kept a good momentum, with mutual political trust further enhanced, pragmatic cooperation continuously deepened and people-to-people exchanges growing more vigorous, Wang said.
He said the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has made concrete achievements and has become an important hallmark for China-Pakistan friendly cooperation in the new era, adding that his visit was meant for sending out a signal once more, to peoples of the two countries and the world that China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners.
For his part, President Arif Alvi extended congratulations to the upcoming 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He said, Pakistan-China cooperation has become more important in current times. Pakistan is firmly committed to the one-China policy, firmly supports China in safeguarding the country’s core and major interests, he said.
After their meeting, the Pakistani president conferred on Wang the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the country’s highest award for foreign leaders.
While meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, Wang said, the prime minister has visited China twice since taking office and reached important consensus with Chinese leaders on further pushing forward the development of bilateral relations.
Wang called on the two sides to work for high-quality CPEC development in the next phase, and make concrete progress in industrial park building and agricultural cooperation.
China will speed up the implementation of social and people’s livelihood projects of early harvest, and discuss the third-party cooperation in the CPEC development, he added.
The Chinese vice president called for strengthened people-to-people and cultural exchanges and collaboration so as to expand the public foundation for the China-Pakistan friendship.
Wang hoped that Pakistan will take effective measures to provide security guarantees for the cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.
Imran Khan, for his part, said, Pakistan adheres to the friendly policy towards China, admires the achievements of China’s reform and opening-up and stands ready to consolidate the traditional friendship with China.
Pakistan also hopes to learn from China in terms of state governance, and enhance exchanges and cooperation in the sectors of agricultural technology, special economic zone development, talent training and anti-corruption.
Noting that fruitful results have been reaped in the CPEC development, the Pakistani prime minister said, the CPEC has played an important role in promoting Pakistan’s economic development and improving people’s livelihood.
Pakistan will continue to enhance coordination with China in international and regional affairs so as to enrich bilateral all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.
During his stay in Pakistan, the Chinese vice president also met with local leaders of the Punjab province, addressed the Friends of Silk Road Forum and visited Haier-Ruba Economic Zone.– NNN-PPI
