The Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif received His Excellency Nong Rong, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Pakistan at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad today.
Expressing satisfaction on the upward trajectory of high-level exchanges between Pakistan and China, the Prime Minister recalled his comprehensive and wide-ranging discussions with Premier Li Keqiang in a telephone call on 16 May 2022, and their consensus to further deepen and strengthen Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership.
The Prime Minister underscored that Pakistan and China were best of friends, staunchest of partners and Iron Brothers. The two nations had always stood by each other through fair weather and times of challenges, and extended support on key issues of core interest. He appreciated China’s support to Pakistan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and development, including in dealing with the emerging economic challenges and volatility in global supply chains and commodities.
The Prime Minister underlined Government’s commitment to unlock the full economic and connectivity potential of CPEC through expedited and high-quality development of CPEC projects. He emphasized the importance of key projects like ML-1 and KCR in Pakistan’s development plans and expressed desire to move towards finalization of these projects in the upcoming 11th meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee. Sharing Pakistan’s focus on early development of CPEC SEZs, the Prime Minister welcomed increased investments of Chinese enterprises especially in the country’s industrial development. Referring to the increasing bilateral trade volumes and Pakistan’s record exports of US $ 3.6 billion in 2021, the Prime Minister emphasized that enhanced market access for Pakistani exports to China would help realize the full potential of Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by the Minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, MOS for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, SAPM Tariq Fatemi, SAPM Zafarullah Mahmood and SAPM Jehanzab Khan.
