ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have agreed to expedite work on key infrastructure development schemes as the two countries strive to proceed to the next phase of the multibillion-dollar economic corridor project launched in April 2015, the foreign office announced in a release issued in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Last week, Pakistan sent Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal to conduct a series of meetings in Beijing to set the tone for the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Currently, the country’s newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Ishaq Dar, is visiting China, where he met with Liu Jianchao, Minister for the International Department of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC), to discuss various dimensions of CPEC.
“The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of the All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership between Pakistan and China and to further reinforce mutually beneficial collaboration,” the foreign office said. “They also expressed joint determination to accelerate progress on all CPEC projects including ML-I [Main Line 1] upgradation, Gwadar Port and KKH [Karakoram Highway] realignment.”
The three projects are central to CPEC, with ML-I upgradation, a major railway project, involving the dualization of the existing railway track from Karachi to Peshawar. The development of Gwadar Port and KKH realignment are also vital to enhance trade and connectivity within and beyond the region.
Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s support to China on its core issues. The Chinese minister also said that Beijing would always support Pakistan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and socioeconomic development.
The Pakistani deputy prime minister expressed over the killings of Chinese nationals in a suicide attack in Shangla earlier this year. He noted the Pakistani authorities had a firm resolve to counter extremist violence in all its forms and manifestations and bring perpetrators of the Shangla attack to justice.
Dar also invited the Chinese minister to visit Pakistan to co-chair the next meeting of the CPEC Joint Consultative Mechanism of Political Parties this year.
