BEIJING: President Xi Jinping met President Mamnoon Hussain in Qingdao on Saturday and congratulated him for Pakistan’s first official membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
The meeting took pace on the sideline of the 18th SCO summit that begins on Sunday.
Xi Jinping pointed out that in recent years, China-Pakistan relations have enjoyed a good momentum.
The all-weather strategic cooperation between China and Pakistan is not only a valuable asset of China and Pakistan, but also provides a model for building a new type of international relations.
China attaches great importance to China-Pakistan relations and is willing to work closely with Pakistan on high-level exchanges and strategic communications, strengthen friendly exchanges in all fields, steadily push forward the establishment of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and cooperation in energy and transportation infrastructure under the “One Belt and One Road” framework to enhance anti-terrorism security.
The level of cooperation will promote greater development of bilateral relations.
President Jinping stressed that China will continue to firmly support Pakistan’s efforts to safeguard national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and support Pakistan’s choice of development path.
The Chinese side will, as always, firmly support each other with Pakistan on issues related to each other’s core interests and safeguard the common interests of both countries and even developing countries.
The Pakistani president said that China is a reliable friend and a firm partner of Pakistan and Pakistan-China relations must not be shaken. Pakistan adheres to the one-China policy and firmly supports China’s core interests.
It is willing to continue to maintain high-level exchanges with China, deepen cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade and security, advance the construction of CPEC, and coordinate closely on international and regional issues.
Pakistan supports China’s greater role in international affairs and believes that this is crucial to maintaining global security and stability.
Moreover, the Chinese Acting Ambassador Zhao Lijan felicitated Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning and Development (P&D), Dr Shamshad Akhtar on accepting the new and rather challenging assignment.
During a call on meeting with the minister, Lijan expressed the hope that keeping in view her vast experience and challenging assignments she has worked upon, the economy of the country would also be handled in a smooth manner during the interim period.
She also briefed the minister on some of the CPEC projects and their progress so far. The minister thanked the ambassador for the good wishes and assured her that the cooperation between the two countries would continue during the interim regime.