Islamabad:
The Foreign Ministers in Pakistan and China on Wednesday agreed to further strengthen their bilateral cooperation to promote regional peace, stability and development.
Senator Ishaq Dar and Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in Tianjin and underwent bilateral ties and discussed regional and international development.
The meeting took place before Dar wrapped his three-day trip to China, where he went to attend the SCO Council for the Foreign Minister meeting.
A statement from the Foreign Office said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed the two countries’ obligation to strengthen their strategic partnership.
Dar congratulated Wang Yi with the successful hosting of the SCO Foreign Minister Meeting and expressed gratitude for the warm hospitality expanded by China during the event.
The two leaders held extensive discussions on issues of mutual interest, including progress with the China-Pakistanic Economic Corridor (CPEC) and improved multilateral cooperation.
Emphasizes the importance of Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership, expressed both sides satisfaction over their ongoing close cooperation across different areas.
They also repeated their decision to further strengthen bilateral ties to promote regional peace, stability and development.
The two ministers also discussed the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took China.
The prime minister is ready to attend SCO heads for governments meeting at the end of August, but he will also meet President Xi Jinping.
According to officials who are familiar with the development, the Prime Minister will be accompanied by Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
The upcoming trip from Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership is of extra importance in the wake of the four-day military conflict with India, where Pakistan got the upper hand, with his Air Force shooting down six Indian fighter jets, including the French-made Rafale.
The conflict attracted attention to China’s military hardware, where several Western capitals closely monitored the trend in South Asia. Chinese-made J-10C fighter jets and in addition to visual-series PL-15 missiles played a critical role.
However, it was Pakistan’s original system integration that made the Chinese hardware even deadly.
During a recent visit to Pakistan, the head of the Chinese Air Force expressed a great interest in learning from Pakistan’s fighting experience and multi-domain operations.
In a related development, the Indian Deputy Chief of Army Staff recently claimed that India was engaged in a two-front conflict while pointing out Chinese commitment to Pakistan’s military success.
Pakistan acquires 80 percent of its military hardware from China.
However, the Pakistan Army chief at a recent corps executive’s meeting clarified that the conflict in May was “unmistakable bilateral”.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister returned to Islamabad after completing a successful two-day visit to China for the SCO Council for Foreign Ministers, according to his office.
In addition to participating in the most important SCO CFM procedure and the joint call for President Xi Jinping, DPM/FM held bilateral meetings with its colleagues from SCO Member States, it said.
China’s Foreign Minister said on Wednesday that China was willing to elaborate on cooperation with Pakistan in Agriculture, Industry and Mining when he met with his Pakistani counterpart in Tianjin, according to a Chinese statement.
China “supports Pakistan in the performance of his anti-terrorist operations” and believes Pakistan would “do its utmost” to ensure the security of Chinese staff, projects and institutions in Pakistan, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar.
With additional input from Reuters
