PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan has arrived here on Tuesday on a two-day visit toChina during which he will hold talks with the top Chinese leadership,including President Xi Jinping, and discuss issues of regional and bilateralsignificance.
Prime Minister Khan was received by the Chinese Minister for Culture Luo Shugang, Ambassador of China to Pakistan Yao Jing and Pakistan officials.
Khan will reportedly meet the country's top leadership,including President Xi, and discuss issues of regional and bilateralsignificance. Khan's visit to China, third since he took over as Prime Ministerin August last year, acquires significance as it comes days ahead of PresidentXi's planned high-profile visit to India to take part in the 2nd informalsummit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mamallapuram near Chennai thisweek.
Khan will have separate meetings with President Xi andChinese Premier Li Keqiang to discuss issues of regional and bilateralsignificance.
Khan's visit takes place at a time when tensions have spikedbetween Pakistan and India after New Delhi ended the special status of Jammuand Kashmir on August 5. Beijing, the all-weather ally of Islamabad, has backedPakistan over the Kashmir issue, with its Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying,"no actions that would unilaterally change the status quo should betaken".
Khan will also discuss the expansion of projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework besides cooperation in agriculture, industrial and socio-economic sectors.
Earlier, the media reports said Khan would hold talks withthe top Chinese leadership to revive the stalled USD 60 billion CPEC projects.
The CPEC was launched in 2015 and several projects under the first phase are close to completion. But the progress on the next phase projects has slowed since Prime Minister Khan came to power last year.
He said he would visit China and meet its leadership tostrengthen friendship between the two countries.
Most of the CPEC-related projects have been stalled due tocertain reasons, including prevailing financial crunch confronting thegovernment and non-cooperation of the bureaucracy due to fear of the National AccountabilityBureau', the anti-corruption watchdog. The CPEC is the flagship project ofPresident Xi's pet multi-billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The CPEC hasalso become a major irritant in India-China relations with New Delhi voicingits opposition to the infrastructure project as it traverses throughPakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
