Pakistani PM to visit China, among first foreign leaders to visit after 20th CPC National Congres

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit China on November 1 upon invitation by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday, Global Times reported. Shehbaz is among the first batch of foreign leaders to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which concluded on Saturday, demonstrating the special friendship and strategic mutual trust between China and Pakistan, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Wednesday's routine news conference. The visit will also be Shehbaz's first visit to China since taking office in April, a continuation of the positive momentum of close high-level contacts between the two countries, Wang said.

During his visit, Shehbaz is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He will also hold talks with Premier Li Keqiang, and meet with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Li Zhanshu. The leaders will have in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern, and jointly plan and put forward the blueprint for the development of China-Pakistan relations, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Wang noted that China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic partners and ironclad brothers. The two countries have always understood each other, trusted each other and supported each other over the past 70 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties. In recent years, the two countries have moved forward side by side in the changing world, joining hands to tackle the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and major natural disasters, building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor with high quality, deepening all-round exchanges and cooperation, and carrying out close coordination and cooperation on international and regional affairs, Wang said, according to Global Times. The spokesperson said that China looks forward to working with Pakistan in order to take this visit as an opportunity to further promote all-weather and high-level strategic cooperation, build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, and make greater contributions to the maintenance of regional peace and stability and international fairness and justice.