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China said on Monday that it hoped to strengthen its “all-weather” strategic ties and modernize the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects as Shehbaz Sharif took the oath of office as prime minister of Pakistan for the second time.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning held a press conference and expressed China’s sincere congratulations to Shehbaz Sharif on his election as Pakistan’s prime minister.
Not long after Sharif’s election on Sunday, he received congratulations from Premier Li Qiang and President Xi Jinping.
Mao stated that China greatly values Prime Minister Sharif’s remarks regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and relations with Pakistan.
“We stand ready to work with Pakistan to carry forward our traditional friendship, advance exchanges and cooperation across the board, upgrade the CPEC, and deepen China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership,” she said.
In his victory speech yesterday, Shehbaz Sharif vowed to further promote the CPEC projects with China.
The CPEC, a global infrastructure and investment initiative by Beijing, was launched in 2013. It connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province.
There is a sense of relief among the official circles here that Pakistan, a key ally of China, which has been going through grave economic and political crises for the last several years, has an elected government that Beijing could deal with.
China had an uneasy relationship with former prime minister Imran Khan’s government, which was blamed for the slow pace of the CPEC.
Both Shehbaz and his brother, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, are familiar political figures for the ruling Chinese Communist Party as both of them along with the Pakistan military strengthened the all-weather alliance during their tenures. They are also firm backers of the strategic CPEC project.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsChina has been providing forex loans and rollover of its debt periodically to bail out Pakistan which is facing a severe economic crisis.
Recent reports from Islamabad said China has agreed to roll over a USD 2 billion loan due to be paid in March.
With inputs from PTI