Chinese FM arrives today

BEIJING: Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay a three-day official visit to Pakistan from today (Friday).

This was announced here on Thursday by the Chinese Ministry’s spokesperson Hua Chunying at a regular news briefing. The announcement said at the invitation of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Pakistan from September 7 to 9.

During the visit in addition to holding talks with Foreign Minister Qureshi and meeting with media’s personnel Wang Yi will also visit the main leaders of the Pakistani side. The two sides will exchange views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern.

The visit of State Councilor is the first high-level exchange between China and Pakistan after the establishment of the new Pakistani government. “We hope and look forward to this visit continue the traditional friendship between two countries, promote mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and push China-Pakistan all weather strategic partnership to a new height. China and Pakistan are all weather strategic partners. The two countries are good neighbours, good friends and good brothers. China-Pakistan relations have maintained a good momentum of development. The two sides have maintained frequent high -level exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in various fields has progressed smoothly. In particular the construction of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor has achieved fruitful results,” the announcement added.

The spokesperson further said Pakistan has just successfully held general elections elected a new president and smoothly completed the government change. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have sent congratulatory messages to President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan respectively.

Diplomatic circles in Islamabad have termed the Wang Yi s visit as highly significance in the background of current geo-Political scenario in the region. China attached high importance to its relations with Pakistan and had announced to work with the new government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The visit also gets special importance since the two countries have expressed their desire to give further boost to their mutually beneficial cooperative partnership under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).