Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit China from June 4 to 8 on the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan’s foreign ministry announced on Friday.
The trip to Islamabad’s ‘all-weather partner’ will seek to upgrade cooperation under the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a key part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
“An important aspect of the prime minister’s visit will be meetings with corporate executives of leading Chinese companies dealing with oil and gas, energy, ICT and emerging technologies,” Pak foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch said in a press briefing.
This trip comes as Chinese investment and financial support since 2013 have been key for the South Asian nation’s struggling economy, including the rolling over of loans so that Islamabad can meet external financing needs at a time foreign reserves are critically low.
During his trip, Sharif will meet President Xi and hold delegation-level talks with Premier Li Qiang, Baloch added. China has also invested billions in various power projects and road networks in Pakistan under the $65 billion CPEC plan, but the implementation of various projects has slowed in recent months.
Chinese citizens and interests have been regularly attacked in Pakistan by militants, the most recent of which was the killing of six Chinese engineers in a suicide bombing in March. The engineers were working on a dam in northern Pakistan. Beijing has pressed Pakistan to guarantee the safety of Chinese organisations and personnel working there.
The announcement of Sharif’s visit comes days after Pakistan announced it had arrested 11 Islamist militants involved in the bombing. Islamabad has said the militants operate out of Afghanistan. However, Kabul has rejected the charges. The arrested men belong to local Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is an umbrella group of dozens of Sunni Islamists and sectarian militant groups.
(With agency inputs)
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