Chinese President Xi Jinping told Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif on Wednesday that he was “deeply concerned” about the safety of the Chinese people in Pakistan, but Beijing said it would add “new I assure you that I am ready to bring the impetus.
Xi and Sharif reaffirmed their mutual commitment to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Sharif will visit China for two days, where he will meet with top Chinese leaders and sign some agreements. Xi’s concerns for the safety of the Chinese people came amid a terrorist attack outside the Confucius Institute at Karachi University in April that killed three Chinese teachers and a Pakistani driver.
China and Pakistan should promote the construction of CPEC more effectively and accelerate the infrastructure construction of Balochistan’s Gwadar port, Xi said. Many of China’s development projects in Pakistan are part of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). President Xi Jinping added that the two countries should work together to create the conditions for early implementation of the Main Line 1 (ML-1) railway modernization project and the Karachi Circular Railway project. “…deepening the all-weather strategic partnership between Pakistan and China is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy and the consensus of all sectors of society,” Sharif said. The leaders discussed cooperation on a range of issues including defense, trade and investment, agriculture, health, education, green energy, science and technology, and disaster risk reduction,” Pakistan’s Associated Press said in a report.