PM Imran to depart for first official visit to China today

This will be PM Imran Khan’s first official visit to China after assuming office in August this year/file photo
ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: Prime Minister Imran Khan will depart for Beijing today for a five-day visit during which he will hold meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other leaders.

The premier was earlier scheduled to visit China from November 2 to 5 on the invitation of the Chinese leadership. But an updated schedule of the prime minister’s visit released by the government said the prime minister would now depart a day earlier via a special plane.

This will be PM Imran’s first official visit to China after assuming office in August this year. A high-level delegation, including Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, will accompany the prime minister.

The Foreign Office, in a statement earlier, said the two sides will review the entire range of bilateral relations during the visit, which have enjoyed a long history of mutual trust and mutual support. The two leaderships will also sign several agreements in diverse fields.

PM Imran is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 2. He will visit the Monument to the People’s Heroes at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and also meet the chairman of the National People’s Congress on November 3.

He will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang the same day at a ceremony during which the two leaders will sign memorandums of agreements between the two countries.

Pakistan and China are ‘all-weather strategic cooperative partners’: FM Qureshi

A guard of honour will also be given in honour of the Pakistani premier.

On November 4, the PM will speak at the Central Party School before leaving for Shanghai to participate in the first China International Import Expo. The premier will be a keynote speaker at the inauguration of the expo, and among 18 heads of state and government who will be attending the expo.

More than 2,800 companies from 130 countries and regions, and 160,000 buyers from over 80,000 Chinese and foreign companies will participate in the expo.

PM Imran’s visit to promote further development of bilateral ties: Chinese spokesperson
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday said China and Pakistan attached great importance to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s upcoming visit and believed that, with joint efforts of both sides, it would promote further development of relations between the all-weather strategic partners.

“This is his first official visit to China since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, in which, the leaders of the two countries will conduct in-depth exchanges on issues of common concern,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said during his regular briefing in Beijing.

The spokesperson said China and Pakistan were all-weather strategic partners. The relationship between the two countries was not affected by the changes in the international situation and the changes in their respective domestic situations, he added.

To a question that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had caused some debt problems to Pakistan, the spokesperson reiterated that the Pakistani government and all sectors of society had expressed that the corridor served as a mutually beneficial cooperation project between China and Pakistan and had played an important role in improving people’s livelihood and promoting economic development in Pakistan.