President Alvi’s visit to China to further cement historic bonds between two all-weather friends: FM Qureshi

BEIJING, Mar 16 (APP)::President Dr Arif Alivi’s present visit to China would further cement the historic bonds of trust and mutual support between the two all-weather friends and iron brothers and serve as an opportunity for the leadership of two countries to review bilateral, regional and international issues, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday.

“Although the president’s visit is aimed at conveying strong support and solidarity of Pakistan towards the Chinese government and people in their battle against novel coronavirus but it will provide an opportunity to the top leadership of two countries to review bilateral relations and discuss new developments in the region especially the Afghan peace process and the latest situation in occupied Kashmir,” he told APP.

He said the president would hold separate meetings with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and chairman of National People’s Congress (NPC), adding, the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on cooperation in agriculture and science and technology would also be signed.

Appreciating Chinese government’s measures against coronavirus, he said the Chinese leadership and people had set an example by preventing and controlling the virus with great commitment and courage.

“The entire world has praised and acknowledged the effective steps taken by China against the coronavirus and now a number of countries are applying these measures to control this epidemic in their respective countries,” he added.

About Chinese leadership’s appreciation for Pakistan’s support during its battle against coronavirus, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan telephoned President Xi and expressed solidarity with him. “I also talked with my counterpart Wang Yi and offered Pakistan’s continued support during the testing time.”

Reiterating Pakistan’s commitment and resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese brethren in the difficult time, he said there was a time when other countries were pulling out citizens from China, Pakistan took a right and a positive step and did not evacuate its citizens from Wuhan.

The foreign minister pointed out that the Chinese leadership had assured that Pakistani students and member of Pakistani community would be treated like the Chinese citizens and would be provided all the facilities.

“The way the Chinese government took care of our students and provided medical assistance to them, we are thankful for this gesture,” he added.
He also lauded the embassy staff for playing a very active role during this challenge and said they remained in contact with the students and their parents and provided them complete care.

“I congratulate them as they took care of our citizens and upheld the country’s name and did not leave China in a difficult time,” he said.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi also appreciated the Chinese government for the supply of pesticide and spraying equipment to control the spread of locust in Pakistan and similarly providing a timely supply of testing kits for coronavirus.

He informed that a quarantine center had been set up in Taftan border for our citizens coming from Iran adding, “We have installed testing facilities at our airports and other places to monitor passengers coming to Pakistan.”

About China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he said both China and Pakistan were committed to advance its construction of the flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

He said the impact of coronavirus would be very limited and expressed the confidence that all the projects being completed under this framework would be completed on time.

Commenting on the stance of Pakistan and China over the recently signed peace agreement between the United States (US) and Afghan Taliban in Doha, Qatar, he said Pakistan had always been supporting the establishment of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan has been advocating that Afghan issue could only be resolved through talks and the lasting settlement of this issue could be achieved through political negotiations,” he said and added, at last, the two sides sat across the table to seek a negotiated settlement of this longstanding issue and reached an agreement.

He said the international community particularly China, Russia, and other regional countries had supported and appreciated the peace agreement between the US and the Afghan Taliban.

“We desired peace in Afghanistan and finally the dream of peace in Afghanistan came true,” he added.

The foreign minister said now it was the responsibility of Afghanistan government to play its role in creating a conducive atmosphere and implementing the agreement in letter and spirit.