ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that his country will not let anyone damage its friendship with China, Chinese media reported on Sunday, days before his visit to Beijing.
The Pakistani prime minister is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping and hold delegation-level talks with Premier Li Keqiang during the two-day visit starting November 1.
PM Sharif is among the first batch of foreign leaders who will be visiting China after the conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party in Beijing.
The visit, however, comes in the backdrop of a suicide attack that killed three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver in the southern port city of Karachi in April. Not only it rattled authorities in Pakistan, but a team of Chinese officials also traveled to Pakistan to assist in investigations.
“Safety and security of Chinese personnel and projects in Pakistan remains our top priority,” PM Sharif wrote in an opinion article, published by China’s Global Times newspaper on Sunday.
“The loss of precious Chinese lives in Pakistan is our loss. We would not let anyone to damage our close friendship and strong economic partnership.”
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addresses Pakistan-China Business and Investment Forum in Islamabad, Pakistan, on October 31, 2022. (PID)
Separatist militants have often targeted Chinese nationals in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, where Beijing is involved in a huge infrastructure project as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
The project, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports that will connect China to the Arabian Sea and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
Last year, 13 people, including nine Chinese workers employed at the Dasu Hydropower Project in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were killed in a suicide blast attack.
The Dasu blast had frayed relations between Islamabad and Beijing, and Pakistan later paid millions in compensation to the families of the deceased Chinese workers.
But Sharif said his government would spare no effort to bring the perpetrators of these “reprehensible acts” to justice.
“Both Pakistan and China are tied together by a common vision to play a role for bright future of our people as well as for peace and stability of the broader region,” he said in the article.
“This is a responsibility that history has placed on our shoulders and we would surely fulfil it!”
On Monday, China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong also called on PM Sharif in Islamabad, Pakistani state media reported.
“They discussed Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to China and agreed that this will further strengthen trade and economic cooperation between the two countries,” the Radio Pakistan broadcaster said on its website.
China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong (right) calls on Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad, Pakistan, on October 31, 2022. (PID)
This is Sharif’s first bilateral visit to China since assuming office of the prime minister in April.
“These interactions would provide us an excellent opportunity to review our bilateral relations and to further expand cooperation in key areas of trade, investment, infrastructure, industry, agriculture and IT,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moinul Haque told the Global Times on Sunday.
Both sides would discuss important regional and international issues, particularly challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, inflation and poverty, he noted.
