President Alvi discusses fight against COVID-19 in Pakistan with Chinese counterpart

Alvi appreciated China’s efforts to take care of the 1,300 Pakistani students stranded in China’s Wuhan city

President Dr Arif Alvi and Chinese President Xi Jinping “discussed in great detail” the fight against the novel coronavirus in Pakistan during his two-day official visit to China.

The president took to microblogging website Twitter and said his visit to China was to show solidarity with his Chinese counterpart.

He lauded China - "Pakistan's iron brother" - for their efforts to control the virus - as new cases in the Hubei province have been in single digits for the past seven days, as compared to several thousand a day in early February.

He also appreciated China’s efforts to take care of the 1,300 Pakistani students stranded in China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the COVID-19.

 

My visit to China on invitation of President Xi Jinping was to show solidarity with China in stressful times, appreciate their outstanding effort to contain Coronavirus & for taking good care of students in Wuhan. How to #iFightCorona War in Pakistan was discussed in great detail https://t.co/n5374FD3Po

— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) March 18, 2020

Given the depth & breadth of Pakistan-China ties & the finest traditions of both countries to always stand by each other particularly in challenging times, President Dr. Arif Alvi’s first visit to Beijing was a singular expression of Pakistan’s solidarity with its “iron brother.” pic.twitter.com/NunGwgsC8a

— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) March 17, 2020

A day earlier, Pakistan and China underlined that coronavirus was a common challenge for humanity and called for all the countries around the world to “unite and cooperate” to overcome this challenge together.

Pakistan, China urge united global response to COVID-19

Alvi reached Beijing on Monday on a two-day visit to convey support and solidarity of Pakistan to the government and the people of China in the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19.

During the visit, both the sides also signed a number of memorandums of understanding and handing-over certificates of donated vaccine refrigeration equipment, emergency humanitarian materials for epidemic response and emergency materials of epidemic control.

The joint statement said that China had made major progress in control of coronavirus and would win this “people’s war” against it, adding that both sides underlined that COVID-19 “was a common challenge for the humanity and all countries should unite to overcome this challenge together”.