Top Chinese commander to visit next month

Fan Changlong will visit in the middle of November

BEIJING: One of China’s top military commanders will travel to Pakistan next month in a crucial visit aimed at further deepening ties between the two countries.

Fan Changlong, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission that controls China’s armed forces, will visit Pakistan and India in the middle of November, the country’s defence ministry confirmed on Thursday. The trip is aimed at boosting friendly exchanges and helping jointly maintain regional peace and security, ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun told a news briefing.

Meanwhile, speaking at a seminar in Islamabad on Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry urged the world powers to strive for conflict resolution in South Asia and to avoid actions that destabilise the region’s strategic stability.

“If their (world powers) aim is to help achieve lasting peace in South Asia, they should help to promote an equitable solution to Kashmir,” he said at an international conference hosted by the Islamabad-based Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in London.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2015.