Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently on an official visit to China, met President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday.According to the Prime Minister's Office, during their most warm and extremely cordial meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment and resolve to further strengthen the iron-clad, all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China. The Prime Minister congratulated President Xi Jinping on the success of the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Tianjin and offered his felicitations on the 80th anniversary of World’s Anti-Fascist War.
While lauding President Xi Jinping for his visionary and transformational leadership that has inspired China’s remaining journey towards modernization and progress, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan took great pride in China’s achievements and would always stand ready to work together with China in this great journey.
The Prime Minister appreciated China’s unflinching support to Pakistan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and socio-economic development. He lauded the significance of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor as a flagship project of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and reaffirmed the desire to continue working closely with China for the successful implementation of the next phase of upgraded CPEC, with its five new corridors. This would help both countries to build an even stronger Pakistan-China community with a shared future.
The Prime Minister hailed President Xi Jinping’s strong commitment to strengthen multilateralism and said Pakistan fully supported President Xi’s landmark steps in this regard including the Global Governance Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative as well as Global Civilization Initiative. These initiatives, the Prime Minister said, would serve the collective global good and contribute to regional as well as global peace, stability and development.
President Xi said that China would continue to assist Pakistan in all fields of economic growth and development, especially as the two countries are now ushering in the second Phase of CPEC that would focus on Pakistan’s most important economic sectors.
Both leaders agreed that the relationship between their countries was unique and unparalleled and this should be reflected in their enhanced bilateral cooperation. Both leaders also discussed important regional and global developments and agreed to continue close cooperation between Pakistan and China in this regard. The Pakistani Prime Minister renewed his most cordial invitation to President Xi Jinping to undertake an official visit to Pakistan next year, when both countries would celebrate the 75th anniversary of establishment of Pakistan-China diplomatic ties.
