China, Pak vow to deepen ties with $46 bn economic corridor

China and Pakistan have pledged to firm up their all weather relations with even more stronger cooperation in all areas by promoting USD 46 billion economic corridor, coinciding with a rare simultaneous visits of both President and Prime Minister of Pakistan here.

President Xi Jinping met with his Pakistani counterpart Mamnoon Hussain today in the river town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang Province, pledging to promote the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and stronger cooperation in all areas.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Second World Internet Conference, which began today and will run until December 18.

Coincidentally, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif too was in China to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in which New Delhi and Islamabad are set to become regular members. The two are currently observers in the six member security grouping.

According to Pakistan's official media, Sharif left for Islamabad yesterday after speaking at the SCO.

President Hussain arrived in Wuzhen yesterday to take part in World Internet Conference.

Though Pakistani leaders are frequent visitors to China considering the close strategic ties between the two countries, it was rare to see both the President and Prime Minister visiting the country around the same time.

In his meeting with Hussain, Xi recalled his trip to Islamabad in April, during which both countries upgraded ties to an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and agreed to form a "1+4" cooperation structure with CPEC at the centre, with Gwadar Port, transportation infrastructure, energy and industrial cooperation as the four key areas to achieve win-win results, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China is going ahead with the CPEC project connecting both the countries depute protests from India as it goes through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In his speech at the SCO yesterday, Sharif also referred to CPEC which he said will be a "resounding success".

"We are ready to make joint efforts with Pakistan to enrich the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, and explore more substantial cooperation," Xi told Hussain.

He called for high-level contact between both countries to continue, as well as exchanges among the two governments, parliaments, parties and armed forces.

Xi also called for more efforts to build early harvest projects of the CPEC, expand industrial cooperation, cultural and people-to-people exchanges and security cooperation, and to enhance coordination on global and regional affairs.

This year is the China-Pakistan Year of Friendly Exchanges, and next year marks the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

Hussain expressed gratitude for China's support for Pakistan's economic development and the improvements it has made to its population.

Hailing the progress of two-way cooperation in such areas as trade, infrastructure and security, he said the establishment and building of CPEC had achieved satisfactory results.