Pakistan is our iron clad friend”: Senior CPC official

BEIJING, Oct 21 (APP):A senior Chinese Communist Party (CPC) official Saturday said that Pakistan is China’s iron clad friend and the two brotherly countries have a very profound friendship as sweet as honey and as hard as iron.
“Pakistan is our iron clad friend. Our two countries have a very profound friendship as sweet as honey and as hard as iron,” Guo Yezhou, a vice minister in the CPC’s International Department made these remarks while responding to a question raised by APP at a press conference on the sidelines of the 19th National Congress of the CPC here.
Stressing a need of paying special attention to neighborhood diplomacy, he said, “China has many neighbors. We have as many as 14 land neighbors and several other neighbors on the sea. Without a good neighborhood, we cannot have security for the country,” he said.
“That requires us both from the government and from the party, a need to pay special attention to neighborhood diplomacy.
Guo Yezhou said the CPC’s foreign contacts job should be seen as an important part of the Chinese diplomacy, adding, “We’ve always made plans and pushed forward the job centering on double position-setting, namely that the Party’s external exchange is an important front of the Party and an important part of the country’s overall diplomacy.”
Guo said that Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has made systematic instructions on the Party’s foreign relations work.
Now the job involves Party diplomacy, public diplomacy and civil diplomacy, he said.
The report of the 19th CPC National Congress has raised clear demands for the Party’s external contacts job, while the Party Constitution also carries explicit stipulations on that, Guo said.
The department’s job will contribute to forging a community of shared future of human being and pushing forward the Party’s construction in the new era, he added.