Pakistan always first in our neighbourhood policy, says China

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China on Thursday told Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that it will always put its ”all-weather ally” as a priority in its neighbourhood diplomacy as it praised his commitment to promote the USD 60 billion CPEC initiative.

Shehbaz met Chinese embassy’s charge d’affaires Pang Chunxue in his office on Tuesday during which he stated that his government attaches great importance to developing relations with China and is willing to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in agriculture, science and technology, education and poverty alleviation, according to official media reports in Beijing.

Shehbaz said that his government will push forward the construction of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with greater vigour and efficiency and create a “Pakistan speed” to bring more benefits to the two countries. Commenting on Shehbaz’s meeting with the Chinese diplomat, spokesman of China’s foreign ministry Zhao Lijian told a media briefing that ”we appreciate the positive comments by Prime Minister Shehbaz”.