Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that closer ties between China and Pakistan are crucial for safeguarding regional peace and stability.
Xi, during his meeting with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing, said China and Pakistan should work to accelerate the building of an even closer community, state-run Xinhua News reported.
"China stands ready to work with Pakistan to build upgraded versions of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement," Xi said, hoping Pakistan will take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.
In recent years, banned terrorist outfits such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have attacked Chinese engineers working on CPEC projects. Pakistan accuses India of backing the BLA, a charge New Delhi denies.
Pakistan said President Xi assured that Beijing would continue supporting Islamabad across all sectors as the two countries prepare to launch the second phase of the multi-billion-dollar CPEC, according to a statement from Prime Minister Sharif’s office.
Both leaders also discussed important regional and global developments and agreed to continue close cooperation between Pakistan and China in this regard.
Sharif thanked China for "unflinching" support to Pakistan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and socio-economic development and reaffirmed the desire to continue working closely with Beijing for the successful implementation of the next phase of the upgraded CPEC, with its five new corridors.
Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1950, Beijing and Islamabad have described their relationship as an “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.” China has become Pakistan’s largest arms supplier, while bilateral trade volume surpassed $23 billion in 2024.
A crucial factor in bilateral ties is the CPEC, a more than $62 billion infrastructure project connecting China's strategically important northwestern Xinjiang province with Balochistan's Gwadar port in southwestern Pakistan.
Sharif arrived in Beijing after attending the 25th leadership summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in China’s Tianjin city.
He will participate, along with 26 other countries' leaders, in China’s Victory Day military parade in Beijing on Wednesday. The grand parade will mark the 80th anniversary of China's victory against Japanese aggression in World War II, according to media reports.
