Chinese President may not attend Pakistan Day parade: Sartaj Aziz

Aziz admitted that no breakthrough was made in talks with India during the recent visit of Indian foreign secretary

Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz on Friday revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently not scheduled to attend the Pakistan Day parade on March 23, Express News reported.

Talking to media in Islamabad, the advisor said that while the Chinese president may not visit on March 23, he will be visiting Pakistan soon.

Earlier, there were some reports that President Xi may visit Pakistan in March to attend the joint military parade on Pakistan Day.

 

Read: Xi Jinping to make first state visit to Pakistan soon, says Chinese foreign minister

 

During his recent visit to Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on February 12, 2015, confirmed that President Xi would be making his first state visit to Pakistan within the 'next few months.'

“That will be his first visit to Pakistan as the head of state of China and that will be the first visit of its kind in nine years,” he said.

The Chinese president was initially supposed to visit Pakistan in August last year but the visit was postponed due to security reasons.

 

Read: Chinese president’s scheduled visit 'mutually postponed'

 

No breakthrough in talks with India 

The advisor to PM admitted on Friday that despite the recent visit of the Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Islamabad, there was no breakthrough in talks with India.

However, he noted that the visit helped in setting the mood for future negotiations.

His statement came a day after the Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said Pakistan would not characterise Indian foreign secretary’s visit as a failure, rather it was an ‘ice breaker’ between neighbouring countries.

“India had characterised it as a visit in the context of Saarc. We said that it is a visit that is taking place in lieu of the August visit as an ice breaker,”Aslam said while briefing media persons in Islamabad on Thursday.

Earlier this week, during his visit to Pakistan, Jaishankar said ensuring peace and tranquility along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary was vital.

 

Read: Ensuring peace and tranquility along border is vital: India foreign secretary

 

Commenting on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, the advisor said that there is continuous cooperation between the neighbouring countries including on Army Public School attack investigation.