China and Pakistan are undoubtedly good friends, and the leaders give a title of “iron-brothers”, where Beijing and Islamabad have expressed readiness to support each other aimed at global changes and instability in recent years.

China views its relations with Pakistan from a strategic and long-term perspective, and Pakistan has always been a high priority in China’s neighborhood diplomacy. China is ready to work with Pakistan to elevate the level of all-round strategic cooperation, speed up efforts to build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, and inject new impetus into their all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.

On his maiden visit to Beijing, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen the all-weather friendship and to accelerate work on the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Sharif’ also thanked China’s invaluable assistance to Pakistan’s relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the wake of devastation caused by super floods in the country. The flood has inflicted billions of dollars of losses to Pakistan and also affected over 33 million people.

China supports Pakistan safeguarding its sovereignty

Chinese President Xi assured his country’s firm support to Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, territorial integrity, development interests and dignity, and in achieving unity, stability, development and prosperity. China vowed to additional emergence relief to help with post-flood reconstruction. China supports Pakistan’s efforts to revive agricultural production, and will strengthen cooperation with Pakistan on disaster prevention and relief and climate change.

Reaffirming Pakistan’s unique historic ties with China and salience of bilateral friendship for regional peace and stability, Pakistan PM Sharif strongly reaffirmed that Pakistan-China friendship enjoyed complete consensus across the political spectrum in Pakistan and was a model of inter-state relations. Sharif also said that Pakistan drew inspiration from China’s socio-economic development and national resolve to the country’s progress and prosperity.

Trade and defense cooperation

The two leaders discussed cooperation across a range of issues, including defense, trade and investment, agriculture, health, education, green energy, science and technology and disaster preparedness. They reaffirmed their mutual commitment to CPEC, while highlighting that CPEC’s high quality development would further strengthen bilateral ties between Pakistan and China.

Chinese president Xi Jinping receiving Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his accompanying delegation.

In this regard, the two leaders agreed that as a project of strategic importance, both sides would make joint efforts for launching ML-1 as an early harvest project, under the CPEC framework. They also acknowledged the need for a mass-transit project in Karachi and agreed to finalize all formalities for early launching of Karachi Circular Railway. They also appreciated the signing of a number of agreements covering a broad range of bilateral cooperation during the visit.

China continues opening-up development policy

China has assured to continue its fundamental policy of opening-up and provide new opportunities to Pakistan and the rest of the world through continuous development. China will further deepen synergy between its development strategies and those of Pakistan. The two sides will make full use of the Joint Cooperation Committee of the CPEC, advance CPEC with greater efficiency, and make CPEC an exemplar of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

President Xi also said that it is important to accelerate the construction of auxiliary infrastructure for Gwadar Port to unleash its role in driving interconnected development in the region. The two sides will work together to create conditions for the early implementation of the upgradation of ML-1 and the Karachi Circular Railway project. Pakistan is welcome to export more quality agri-products to China. China will work with Pakistan to expand cooperation in digital economy, e-commerce, photovoltaic and other new-energy technologies, and take solid steps to advance cooperation concerning agriculture, science, technology and people’s livelihood.

China supports improve Pakistan economy

President Xi said that China will continue to do its best to support Pakistan in stabilizing its financial situation. China supports its provinces with a strong industry in pairing up with Pakistani partners to advance industrial cooperation, and hopes the Pakistani side will provide a sound business environment. President Xi expressed his great concern about the safety of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, and conveyed his hope that Pakistan will provide a reliable and safe environment for Chinese institutions and personnel working on cooperation projects there.

Xi and Sharif also exchanged views on the rapid transformation in the international environment, which had exacerbated economic challenges for developing countries. They affirmed their shared belief in dialogue and cooperation based on equality and mutual benefit as critical for global peace and prosperity.

World is changing like never before

President Xi pointed out that the world is changing in ways like never before. Facing a highly uncertain world, China and Pakistan should stand on the right side of history, keep up their strong cooperation in multilateral mechanisms, and work closely on major international and regional issues so as to uphold true multilateralism, international fairness and justice and the shared interests of developing countries, and inject certainty and positives into the world. China has agreed to work with Pakistan to advance the operationalization of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, make the global economic governance system more fair, equitable and inclusive that benefits all, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. These collaborative efforts will provide a strong underpinning for the development of the two countries, and contribute more to global peace, stability and prosperity.

Sharif extols China’s developments

Pakistan’s Sharif called his visit to China as a testament to the profound, iron-clad friendship between the two countries and said that over the past decade, under the dynamic leadership of President Xi, China has created a miracle of great development achievements. China has upheld multilateralism, promoted global solidarity and cooperation, and made important contributions to safeguarding world peace and development, Sharif said, in doing so, China has lived up to its responsibility as a major country.

Indeed, the world cannot operate without China, and China’s development cannot be isolated or contained by any force. Sharif expressed his confidence that President Xi will continue to lead China toward even more remarkable achievements and create an even brighter future for the world.

While expressing appreciation to the Chinese government for the anti-COVID support, and for the generous assistance in the wake of the devastating floods, Sharif said no country has ever helped Pakistan or other developing countries with such wholehearted sincerity, he said.

He reiterated Pakistan’s firm commitment to the one-China policy and its firm support for China’s position on issues concerning China’s core interests including Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

The two sides also discussed regional issues including Afghanistan. Both leaders acknowledged that a peaceful and stable Afghanistan would promote regional security and economic development and agreed that CPEC’s extension to Afghanistan would strengthen regional connectivity initiatives.

Sharif visited China amid a political impasse

Sharif’s visit to China is taking place at a time when inside the country there is much political instability. Pakistan is facing a political impasse as former Prime Minister, a famous cricketer hero, Imran Khan queered the pitch to press for elections with long march and depending economic crisis, a demand Sharif’s government strongly rejected it.

Mr. Khan on Thursday sustained a bullet injury in his leg after a gunman opened fire at a rally in Punjab province.

Khan, who is also the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was shot in the leg “three to four times” but Khan is reported out of danger. Eight others, including another politician, Faisal Javed Khan, were also reportedly injured in the attack, and one person died in the firing incident. One suspect was arrested in connection, and police launched a thorough investigation in the firing incident.

Moreover, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, last month held talks with Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe in a surprise visit to China amid reports that China is also concerned over Pakistan warming up to the US to use its air base by US drones for military activities. Apparently, Pakistan assured China not to let this happen.

It seems that Sharfi has made all-out efforts during his trip to remove misconceptions or doubts in regards to bilateral relations between Islamabad and Beijing and also asked for support from Chinese officials to deal with both political wrangling, and economic fragility inside Pakistan.