Daily Times

China on Monday warmly welcomed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s upcoming visit and said it looked forward to further advancing high-level strategic cooperation between the two countries and bringing more fruitful outcomes from Sino-Pak friendship to the benefit of the two people.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit will begin on Tuesday. China warmly welcomes him and looks forward to further advancing our high-level strategic cooperation and bringing more fruitful outcomes from our friendship to the benefit of the two people,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said during his briefing held here at the International Press Center (IPC).

The prime minister will arrive in China on a two-day official visit on Tuesday at the invitation of Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang. A high-level delegation will accompany the prime minister who will be on his first visit to China since assuming office in April 2022.

Responding a question, the spokesperson said that China highly appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks about China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and his expectation to the visit. “The prime minister said in a recent interview that CPEC has made great development and he also expressed his expectation for the upcoming China’s visit. “We believe they show the importance he (the prime minister) attaches to the visit to China, high-quality of China-Pakistan relations and deep friendship between our two peoples” the spokesperson commented. Zhao Lijian said that no matter how the international or domestic situations had evolved, China Pakistan friendship had been carried on from generation to generation. “Our two countries have always supported each other on issues concerning respective major interests and have stood together and help each other in the face of major natural disasters,” he added.

He said that the Chinese side would also like to take this opportunity to commend the major outcomes of CPEC. The spokesperson said that as a flagship program of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the CPEC has become a landmark of China-Pakistan cooperation, adding, “It has boosted economic development, improved people’s livelihoods and generated positive socio-economic effects in Pakistan.”? Zhao Lijian said that recently, the 11th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) had successfully been held. Multiple common understandings were arranged about future development of CPEC.