China and Pakistan have reached a new broad consensus on deepening their strategic partnership, according to a joint statement issued by the countries at the end of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Beijing.
The statement, shared by the Foreign Office (FO) on X, said, “The two sides engaged cordially and reached a new broad consensus on further deepening the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and on international and regional issues of mutual interest.”
The statement was issued as PM Shehbaz concluded his four-day visit to China. He was seen off by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying at the Beijing airport.
The joint statement said that the two sides shared the view that the ties between the two countries were an “important wealth and a strategic asset”.
“Throughout the 75 years of diplomatic relations, this friendship has remained rock solid no matter how the international and regional situations evolved, and the two countries have always trusted, respected and supported each other and stood by each other in times of difficulties and challenges,” it said.
It added that at a time when the world was undergoing profound changes, the partnership had taken on “even more strategic importance and relevance”.
“China and Pakistan will move faster to build an even closer China-Pakistan Community with a shared future in the new era, which will set an example for the endeavour to build a community with a shared future that connects China and its neighbouring countries,” it said.
It said that both countries were determined to safeguard and develop their bilateral relations, maintain high-level exchanges, make significant progress under the action plan to foster an even closer China-Pakistan community, deepen mutual trust, practical cooperation, defence and security cooperation, and keep close coordination on international and regional issues, “so as to better harness this relationship to the benefit of the two peoples and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world”.
“Both sides agreed to tap into the potential for cooperation in such areas as economy and trade, energy, digital economy, finance, scientific and technological innovation, artificial intelligence, information and communication, water conservancy, marine affairs, among others, scale up personnel training, consult on advancing trade liberalisation, and jointly safeguard the stability and security of industrial and supply chains.”
The joint statement stressed that Pakistan attached “great importance to and supports the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity and the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI), and the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) put forth by President Xi Jinping.
“The Chinese side stands ready to work with the Pakistani side to fully implement the GSI, establish the China-Pakistan Security Partnership, conduct continued bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, and strengthen military-to-military cooperation, so as to further play a positive role in promoting regional peace and stability,” the statement affirmed.
