China to always stand firm with Pakistan regardless of int’l landscape: Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that China would always stand firm with Pakistan regardless of any change in the international landscape and emphasised that both countries would continue to improve overall planning and deepen cooperation.

The Chinese president, in his congratulatory message on the Decade of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), said that China and Pakistan would continue to work jointly to carry forward the ironclad friendship, and coordinate development and security, besides pursuing cooperation of higher standards.

He said that China and Pakistan would also keep working to take their all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to new heights to make an even greater contribution to peace and prosperity in the two countries and the region.

Read more: China to work with Pakistan to build CPEC into ‘exemplary project’: Xi

In the message, which was also read out by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at the ceremony held in Islamabad to commemorate the Decade of CPEC earlier this week, President Xi Jinping said that China would work with Pakistan to achieve high-standard and sustainable outcomes, and further build CPEC into an exemplary project of the Belt and Road Initiative.

President Xi said that CPEC was a flagship project of the BRI and since its launch in 2013, both countries have been advancing it under the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits.

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The Chinese president said that CPEC had added new impetus to the economic and social development of Pakistan, and laid a foundation for regional connectivity and integration.

He said that CPEC served as “a vivid testament to the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan”, and stressed the need for both nations to continue to improve overall planning and scale up bilateral cooperation under it.