Pakistan, China ready to strengthen ties, expand cooperation

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and China are ready to strengthen bilateral relations and boost cooperation in the emerging fields such as information technology, e-commerce and digital economy.

In a meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday, Pakistani President Arif Alvi said that Pakistan and China have enjoyed friendly relations in the past decades featured with solid unity, mutual support and mutual assistance, with bilateral cooperation increasingly enhanced in all fields.

Pakistan will, as always, unswervingly pursue the one-China policy, support China's positions on its core interests in the issues of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the president stressed.

Pakistan and China have identical views on international and regional issues, and Pakistan opposes any attempt of all external forces to contain China's development, he said.

The building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has yielded fruitful results which have significantly improved the livelihood of the Pakistani people, the president noted.

For his part, Wang said that the China-Pakistan friendship has withstood the test of evolving international landscape and is rock-solid, noting that mutual trust and mutual support are the most distinctive features of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan.

Stressing that China has always been a long-term and most reliable strategic partner of Pakistan, Wang said the Chinese side firmly supports Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and national dignity.

Wang added that China also staunchly supports Pakistan's development, revitalization and prosperity, and firmly supports Pakistan in playing a more important role in the international and regional arena.

China stands ready to work with Pakistan to advance cooperation in traditional fields, expand cooperation in emerging fields such as information technology, e-commerce and digital economy, increase investment in social and livelihood projects in Pakistan, and carry out more "small but beautiful" cooperation projects, he said.

China is willing to encourage more qualified Chinese enterprises to invest and start businesses in Pakistan as well as help Pakistan improve its capacity for independent development so that Pakistan can embark on a development path that suits its national conditions, Wang said.

Wang stressed that due to the centennial changes, the once-in-a-century pandemic and constant spillover of the Ukraine crisis, peace and development in today's world are faced with more insecure and instable factors.

China is ready to strengthen strategic communication, unity and coordination with developing countries including Pakistan and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation so as to inject more stability into the region and the world, and make more contributions to world peace, security and development, he added.

Appreciating China for upholding justice and fairness in the international arena for a long time, the Pakistani president expressed willingness to work with the Chinese side to safeguard the basic norms of international relations such as mutual respect, non-interference in internal affairs and good neighborliness.