- Yao Jing says China to continue to prioritise Pakistan in its foreign policies, neighbourhood diplomacy
ISLAMABAD: As President Xi Jinping put it, the relations between Pakistan and China should be a model of good-neighbourly friendship, a pillar of regional peace and stability, and a benchmark for international cooperation under the Belt Road Initiative (BRI).
“We appreciate that the new government in Islamabad regards the relations with China as the ccornerstoneof Pakistan’s foreign policy and firmly promotes the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing said while addressing a ceremony on the occasion of China’s National Day.
Likewise, China will continue to prioritize Pakistan in its foreign policies and neighbourhood diplomacy, he said, adding that the development of China provides opportunities for the world and the region. He also quoted President Xi statement that a prosperous and stable world provides China with opportunities, and China’s development also offers an opportunity for the world as a whole.
“Whether we will succeed in our pursuit of peaceful development to a large extent hinges on whether we can turn opportunities in the rest of the world into China’s opportunities and China’s opportunities into those for the rest of the world,” he quoted the president as saying. For achieving this goal, “we adhere to the principles of peaceful development, cooperation for win-win outcome,” the ambassador said.
“We are committed to the ideas of fostering a new type of international relations and building a global community with a shared future,” he said. “Time is the most objective witness. For China, 69 years have been a journey from being weak and poor to gaining independence and becoming prosperous,” he said.
He said that it has seen historic leap forward for China, as all great achievements were created by the Chinese people with their own hands from generation to generation. He said that these achievements were made possible by the strong leadership of the China Communist Party and the choice of a development path suited to China’s own national conditions, and by the Chinese nation’s spirit of ceaseless self-reliance and arduous struggle.
“It is the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, and it is also a crucial year for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and for continuing to implement the 13th Five-Year Plan,” he said. About the Sino-Pakistan growing partnership, he said that Pakistan and China were good neighbours, good friends, good partners and good brothers that treat each other with all sincerity and share weal and woe, and the friendship between the two countries has remained solid and kept growing despite the fluctuating international situation.
As a major pilot project of BRI, nine projects of CPEC have been completed and 13 projects are under construction. CPEC is contributing the annual economic growth of Pakistan by one to two percentage points, creating 70,000 direct job opportunities for Pakistan, and improving power supply and transport conditions of Pakistan.
“We would like to make joint efforts with Pakistan to promote CPEC to a new stage of enrichment and extension. The normal operation of the completed project and the smooth progress of the projects under construction will be ensured,” Yao Jing said. At the same time, according to the next economic and social development priorities and the needs of the public of the Pakistani side, the future development path and cooperation direction of the CPEC would be determined through consultations.
“We wish to speed up industrial cooperation and livelihood projects, promote communication and cooperation in areas of poverty relief, anti-corruption, education, and science and technology, strengthen people-to-people exchange, expand cultural connections, make China-Pakistan cooperation benefit all the Pakistani people, and promote closer heart-to-heart communication between our people,” he added.
The Chinese ambassador said that he was convinced that, under the guidance of the leaders and with the joint efforts of both the countries, the road of China-Pakistan friendship would be getting broader and brighter in the days to come. “Let us join hands towards our common dreams and make unremitting efforts to achieve the goal of the community of China-Pakistan shared future at an early date,” he added.