BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday discussed deepening strategic cooperation between the two countries. Both countries are eyeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony for a record third time and his swearing-in ceremony is likely to be attended by top leaders of South Asian neighbours. Pakistan will be the only country whose leader will not attend the swearing-in ceremony. All other leaders of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations will attend the ceremony.
Top leaders from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Seychelles and Mauritius are likely to attend the ceremony. Incidentally, Shehbaz Sharif’s elder brother and former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is considered a supporter of improving India-Pakistan ties, had attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony when he first became Prime Minister in 2014. Xi discussed strong China-Pakistan ties and broad prospects for developing an all-weather strategic partnership between the two countries during his meeting with Sharif. This is Sharif’s first visit to China after becoming Prime Minister for the second time.
“China is willing to work with Pakistan to firmly support each other, strengthen cooperation, deepen strategic coordination and make greater contributions to regional peace and stability,” state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier, Sharif met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang following which the two countries signed 23 agreements, according to state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).
However, the agreements did not cover the second phase of the CPEC and the USD 8 billion high-speed railway project linking Karachi with Peshawar. “We discussed various facets of the multifaceted Pakistan-China relations and discussed our long-standing and steadfast friendship, all-weather strategic cooperation, economic and trade ties and CPEC,” Sharif said in a post on X.
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