By H.E. Jiang Zaidong, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan
At the invitation of H.E. President Xi Jinping, H.E. President Zardari paid a successful state visit to China earlier this month. We are pleased to see that since the establishment of the new Pakistani government in last year, China and Pakistan have maintained close high-level exchanges.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited China in June last year, Premier Li Qiang visited Pakistan in last October, and President Zardari visited China this time; all these visits fully demonstrate the closeness of our ironclad friendship and the high level of China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperation. In particular, President Xi Jinping held talks with President Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif respectively, and reached important consensus, charting the course and injecting robust momentum for advancing China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperation under the new circumstances. We are ready to work with Pakistani side for the implementation, and turn those important consensus into tangible practices and fruitful outcomes of our bilateral cooperation.
We must aim high and far to deepen high-level strategic cooperation. The development of China-Pakistan relations over the past year further indicates that high-level strategic guidance is the fundamental guarantee for the steady and long-term development of our bilateral relations. This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Pakistan in 2015, and in the next year, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan, presenting significant moments and development opportunities for China-Pakistan relations.
The reason why our bilateral relations have achieved leapfrog development over the past decade, and entered a new phase of jointly building a closer Community of Shared Future, is because President Xi, together with Pakistani leaders, renewed the positioning of China-Pakistan relations in the new era, making the two countries the world’s first All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partners. The reason why the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has developed into a comprehensive cooperation framework covering multiple fields over the past decade, earning the reputation of being a “game-changer” for Pakistan’s national development, and entered a new stage of jointly building the “upgraded version” of CPEC, is because President Xi, together with Pakistani leaders, outlined the overall layout of the CPEC construction and promoted the CPEC as a symbolic project under the Belt and Road Initiative.
We are ready to work with Pakistan to fully understand and appreciate the profound significance and valuable insights from President Xi’s historic visit and consistently view and develop China-Pakistan relations from a strategic level. By combining a long-term vision with pragmatic actions, we aim to continuously advance the China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership, accelerate the building of an even closer China-Pakistan Community with a Shared Future in the New Era, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our diplomatic relations with the vivid practice of high-quality CPEC development and other various cooperation.
We must keep our feet on the ground to deepen high-level practical cooperation. President Xi Jinping has stated that China is ready to walk hand in hand with Pakistan on our respective paths to modernization, and welcomes Pakistan to to become one of the first countries to benefit from China’s further deepening of reform comprehensively and expanding high-standard opening up. China is ready to deepen practical cooperation with Pakistan in various fields, work together to upgrade CPEC cooperation, and help Pakistan consolidate its development foundations and unleash its development potential.
We are prepared to work with Pakistan to ensure effective implementation, focusing on the following aspects: Firstly, prioritizing key projects. We’ll continue to advance the realignment of the Karakoram Highway Phase II and the upgrade of the Main Line-1 railway project. Actively promote the comprehensive development and operation of Gwadar Port, and ensure the safe and stable operation of the Khunjerab Pass. Secondly, creating highlights, especially in agricultural cooperation. Last year, China-Pakistan agricultural trade exceeded $1 billion, with Pakistan enjoying a valuable surplus of $237 million.
On February 14 this year, the first batch of 26.5 tons of high-value-added buffalo dairy products arrived in China, a modest quantity but of great significance, showcasing the resilience and prospects of our bilateral agricultural cooperation. While advancing existing agricultural projects, we should promptly identify a second batch of CPEC agricultural projects, so that grains, cotton, oil, meat and dairy products can all be covered. Leveraging Xinjiang’s proximity and cooperative foundation with Pakistan, we aim to promote modern and efficient agricultural cooperation. We’ll expand new models like contract farming to enhance the sense of fulfillment for enterprises and farmers in both countries. Thirdly, cultivating growth points. We’ll accelerate the construction of model Special Economic Zones (SEZs), attract more export-oriented enterprises, explore cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), develop cross-border E-commerce collaborations, and welcome third-party participation in CPEC cooperation, to better harness the potential of B2B collaborations.
We must keep pace with the times to deepen high-level security cooperation. President Xi Jinping emphasized that security is the prerequisite for development, and development is the guarantee for security. Security cooperation and economic cooperation are complementary, and like both wheels of a bicycle, they should advance together. These important insights provided an action plan for coordinating security and economic cooperation. As the world enters a period of turbulence and transformation, China-Pakistan cooperation faces increasing risks and challenges, highlighting the need for more reliable security guarantees. Both sides must adapt to changing circumstances, continually enhancing security cooperation to safeguard practical cooperation between our nations.
During his visit, President Zardari reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to ensuring the safety of Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in Pakistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also repeatedly stated that Pakistan will resolutely combat and severely punish terrorists. Pakistan’s military, police, and other relevant parties have made relentless efforts and significant sacrifices in combating terrorism. We highly appreciate these actions and hope that Pakistan will continue to advance investigations and apprehensions related to anti-China terrorist incidents, increase security investments, and strengthen and optimize security measures.
This will genuinely allow Chinese enterprises to operate with peace of mind, allow Chinese personnel to live in tranquility, and allow China-Pakistan cooperation to develop in a secure environment. We will, as always, firmly support Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts and are ready to provide necessary support for Pakistan’s anti-terrorism capacity building. We also look forward to working with Pakistan to practise the Global Security Initiative, enhance development cooperation to eradicate the breeding grounds of terrorism, and promote multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation to effectively rally our collective forces against terrorism.
We must put people first to deepen high-level cooperation in improving livelihoods. President Xi Jinping emphasized that China’s friendly policy toward Pakistan is always directed towards the entire Pakistani people. He pointed out that the planning and layout of the CPEC should take into account all regions of Pakistan so that the benefits of development can be shared by all Pakistani people. This reflects his deep affection for the Pakistani people and his vision of building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. We are pleased to see that the newly built Gwadar New International Airport, fully funded by China, has recently commenced commercial operations, marking Gwadar’s new step toward a regional connectivity hub.
Over the past 6 months, the China-Pakistan Friendship Hospital, also donated by China, has provided medical services to 150,000 patients, and 1,260 newborns have been delivered there, bringing warmth and joy to many. Together with Pakistan, we have distributed 20,000 “health kits”, and launched a congenital heart disease treatment program for children, both of which have been widely welcomed. Looking ahead, we will continue to carry out more “small but beautiful” projects that benefit people’s livelihoods, to further enhance the Pakistani people’s sense of fulfillment. We will help Pakistan in developing human resources, increasing training opportunities, and implement the bilateral initiative of sending 1,000 Pakistanis to China for modern agricultural training.
We will expand cooperation in education, media, think tanks, youth exchanges, and the film and television industries, to foster mutual learning between civilizations and strengthen cultural and people-to-people ties, so that the China-Pakistan friendship will be passed along generations to come. We must uphold multilateralism to deepen high-level international collaboration. President Xi Jinping stated that China appreciates Pakistan’s active support for the three global initiatives and participation in relevant cooperation, and is ready to work with Pakistan to uphold the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, resist unilateralism and hegemonic practices, strengthen multilateral coordination, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.
In light of the current global landscape, President Xi’s instructions are particularly important and inspiring. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The past 80 years is a period of accelerated advancement in world multipolarity and economic globalization, a period that has witnessed people across the world forging ahead and meeting challenges together, and also a period during which the Global South has been rising and growing in strength. In the face of the profoundly changing international landscape, the Global South should not only achieve the historic feat of moving toward modernization together, but also remain at the forefront of improving the global governance system. As two key countries of the Global South, with Pakistan currently holding a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, China and Pakistan are better-positioned to advance high-level international collaboration.
On February 18, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired a high-level UN Security Council meeting, where Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar, along with representatives from many other countries, joined China in voicing strong support for practising true multilateralism. We highly commend these efforts and look forward to strengthening coordination with Pakistan. Together, we will work toward an equal and orderly multipolar world, and universally-beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, to jointly protect the interests of developing countries and the international equity and justice.
