At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif paid an official visit to China from June 4th to 8th. The visit is PM Shahbaz's first to China since March 2024 when the new government of Pakistan was formed.
The strong Pakistani delegation includes 79 representatives of Pakistani companies from industry, agriculture, mining, energy and information technology sectors, in addition to key cabinet members such as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar, Defense Minister Asif, Minister of Planning and Development Iqbal, Finance Minister Aurangzeb, Petroleum Minister Malik, and Minister of Information Technology Tarar. During his five-day visit to China, Shahbaz visited Shenzhen, Beijing and Xi'an, held important talks with senior Chinese leaders, visited China's advanced science and technology parks and important enterprises, attended the China-Pakistan Business Conference and delivered important speeches, which is a compact itinerary highlighting the urgency of the Pakistani side to fast-track the China-Pakistan cooperation.
In the 73 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, China and Pakistan have been closely interacting at the senior level, and Shahbaz's visit to China is a continuation of the tradition of friendly interaction between China and Pakistan at the senior level. In the context of the current multiple challenges facing Pakistan and the new government's commitment to economic reforms to alleviate the difficulties, Shahbaz's visit to China once again reflects that Pakistan regards China as its most trustworthy friend. At the same time, Shahbaz's visit to China is full of sincerity, as he is looking forward to working with Chinese leaders to further promote China-Pakistan practical cooperation, draw on China's experience to advance Pakistan's domestic reform agenda, and attract Chinese investment to help Pakistan's industrial development and economic modernization.
On June 7, President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister Shahbaz, exchanging views on a series of major issues in China-Pakistan relations and jointly planning the blueprint for the future development of China-Pakistan relations.
On issues related to the core interests of both sides, China said it will, as always, firmly support the Pakistani side in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and support the Pakistani side in taking the road of development in line with its own national conditions; the Pakistani side said that the one-China principle is the unswerving commitment of the Pakistani government, and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and that the Pakistani side will continue to firmly support China's stance on all core interests such as those relating to Taiwan, Tibet, border and the South China Sea, etc., without any delay. We will continue to support China's position on all core interests, including Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and the South China Sea, without hesitation.
On the issue of high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”, China and Pakistan have reached an agreement to build an upgraded version of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), centering on the construction of five corridors, namely, growth, people's livelihood, innovation, greening and opening up, and to promote high-quality joint construction of the CPEC. "The two sides reached an important consensus on building an upgraded version of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, centering on the five corridors of growth, people's livelihood, innovation, green and openness, and promoting high-quality construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, so as to help Pakistan's economic and social development.
On the issue of global and regional governance, China expressed its willingness to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Pakistan within the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other multilateral mechanisms, to jointly promote equal and orderly world multipolarity and inclusive economic globalization, to focus on the development agenda, to address security challenges, to improve global governance, and to safeguard the common interests of developing countries as well as international fairness and justice; the Pakistani side highly appreciates and fully supports the joint construction of the “One Belt, One Road” proposed by China. "Pakistan highly appreciates and fully supports China's initiative to build the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
This year marks the beginning of the second golden decade of the Belt and Road Initiative and the second phase of the China-Brazil Economic Corridor. As an important landmark project of the “Belt and Road”, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has been regarded as a high-quality demonstration project of the “Belt and Road” by both China and Pakistan. In mid-May this year, during Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar's visit to China, the two sides indicated that they would jointly promote the construction of the “upgraded” version of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). At the recently held 13th meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Joint Cooperation Committee, the two sides finalized five new corridors (5Cs) for the second phase of the project, including the Growth Corridor, the Livelihood Corridor, the Innovation Corridor, the Green Corridor and the Open Corridor. The high-level meeting between China and Pakistan identified the “5C” corridors as the five priorities for the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will not only provide an important direction for the high-quality construction of the Corridor, but will also help the country to better realize economic growth, livelihood improvement, scientific and technological innovation and green development.
Wide-ranging pragmatic cooperation is a strong driving force of China-Pakistan relations. Since the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in 2013, China has been Pakistan's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years and its largest source of investment for 11 consecutive years. Cumulatively, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has brought $25.4 billion in direct investment to Pakistan, created 236,000 jobs, and added 510 kilometers of highways, more than 8,000 megawatts of electricity, and 886 kilometers of the country's core transmission grid. As a pragmatic politician, Prime Minister Shahbaz during his visit to China through business forums, visits to Chinese enterprises and other ways, personally for the cooperation between Chinese and Pakistani enterprises “matchmaking”. Only in Shenzhen on June 5, China-Pakistan Business Forum, China and Pakistan companies signed 32 memorandums of understanding, covering energy, automotive, communications, pharmaceuticals and other fields. Among them, Huawei also signed an agreement with the Pakistani Ministry of Information Technology to provide free IT training for 200,000 Pakistani youth. This is a landmark event that means private companies will play a bigger role in the next step of China-Pakistan cooperation.
A secure and stable environment is crucial and indispensable to China-Pakistan practical cooperation, including corridor construction. China-Pakistan cooperation is facing rising security risk challenges, which the Pakistani side has deeply realized. Whether in high-level interactions with Chinese leaders or in-depth exchanges with Chinese enterprises, the Pakistani side has repeatedly taken the initiative to mention the safety of projects and personnel of Chinese-funded enterprises in Pakistan. The Pakistani side expressed its determination to combat and severely punish the terrorists involved in the case, and take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and organizations in Pakistan, and further said that no force can stop China's development and growth, and no force can shake the “hardcore” friendship between Pakistan and China. The two sides jointly issued a joint statement, reaffirming the “zero tolerance” attitude to combat all forms of terrorism, agreed to further strengthen counter-terrorism security cooperation.
The visit will become a new important opportunity for the development of China-Pakistan relations, which will help China and Pakistan deepen the exchange of experience in governance and civilization, promote the development concepts of the two countries and policy coordination, and jointly promote greater development of China-Pakistan all-weather strategic partnership, and build a closer China-Pakistan community of destiny in the new era to take a new step forward. (Liao Xin She)
The author is the director of the Center for Pakistan Studies at the Graduate School of International Studies, Fudan University
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