Deputy Prime Minister Isaq Dar has arrived in Beijing to co-chair the 5th Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue on Monday (13). Dar, who also handles the country’s Ministry of External Affairs, was received by Ambassador Wang Fu Kang and Pakistan’s envoy to China Dr. Khalil Hashmi as shared by the Foreign Office on social media.
During his visit from 13th to 16th May, Dar will hold meetings with Chinese leaders, prominent business enterprises, and senior officials. The bilateral discussions will cover a wide range of topics, including economic and trade collaborations, high-level diplomatic interactions, enhancements to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and forthcoming connectivity ventures.
The trip reflects the importance attached by the two countries to further deepening the ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’, reaffirming mutual support on issues of core interest, enhancing economic and trade cooperation including CPEC, and reinforcing joint commitment to regional peace and development.
This is the first visit of the current newly formed government after the PML-N-led government came to power after the 8th February general elections. Last week, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal was on a visit to China, where the agenda was to discuss taking forward the second phase of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and to pursue existing investors and financial institutions to tap into more firms in the transmission and distribution network.
Earlier, Dar and Zheng Jianbang, the vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, had met on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in The Gambia. There, the neighbors had expressed the determination to further enhance and upgrade cooperation on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
