Pakistan will always be 'high priority' for China, says envoy

China's newly appointed envoy to Pakistan, Jiang Zaidong, has reiterated that Pakistan will always be a 'high priority' for China in its approach to neighbourhood diplomacy. 

"China views its relations with Pakistan from a strategic and long-term perspective, and Pakistan has always been a high priority in China’s neighborhood diplomacy," said Zaidong.

He added that China's development will "undoubtedly create new opportunities" for the existing China-Pakistan cooperation. 

Referring to Chinese Communist Party's (CPC) Central Committee under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, the newly-appointed envoy said Beijing's "fundamentals sustaining China’s long-term growth remain unchanged. China has the confidence, the conditions and the ability to promote the continuous optimization of its economic structure, continuous enhancement of its growth momentum, and continuous improvement of development trends."

"China will accelerate efforts to foster a new development paradigm, pursue high-quality development in a comprehensive way, and contribute more The two militaries have witnessed fruitful cooperation in fields such as joint training and exercises, anti-pandemic cooperation, equipment and technology collaboration, constantly enriching the connotation of bilateral strategic cooperation, making important contribution to safeguarding regional peace and stability.positive energy to global economic recovery".

He also highlighted China-Pakistan military exchanges and cooperation, which "continue to deepen".

"The leaders of the two militaries have maintained good momentum of frequent exchanges and visits."

He elaborated that the two militaries have witnessed fruitful cooperation and routinely conduct joint exercises and training. The envoy added that equipment and technology collaboration and making important contributions to safeguarding regional peace and stability continue. 

In the economic sphere, Zaidong said "practical cooperation has achieved fruitful results". He maintained that economic and trade cooperation is being maintained at a high level and China has been Pakistan's largest trading partner for eight consecutive years. 

"Pakistan’s exports of agricultural products to China have grown rapidly. The CPEC has evolved from vision into reality, becoming a vivid testament of the all-weather friendship, and providing important support for building an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era. Two sides are committed to jointly building CPEC into a growth corridor, a livelihood-enhancing corridor, an innovation corridor, a green corridor and an open corridor, and carry forward the CPEC with high-quality development."

The envoy further said that both sides have maintained close high-level exchanges. "President Xi Jinping sent a message of congratulations to the 10^th anniversary of the CPEC, and dispatched his Special Representative, Vice Premier of the State Council of China Mr. He Lifeng to visit Pakistan for the celebration. It fully demonstrates the great importance attached to China-Pakistan relations by our leaders."

On cultural ties, the new ambassador said people exchanges continue to expand and the "people-to-people bond has been further strengthened"