BEIJING, Nov 2: Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, reached Beijing for a three-day visit on Thursday night.
This is Khan’s first official visit to China after assuming his office on August 18 this year. The Khan-led high-powered Pakistani delegation was welcomed by Chinese Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Yao Jing at the Beijing International Airport.
According to Pakistani TV news channel Geo News, Prime Minister Khan is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, his counterpart, Li Keqiang, and other top dignitaries during his stay in Beijing.
The two sides will be signing a slew of bilateral agreements to further deepen friendly ties between the two countries, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Office. “The two sides will review the entire range of bilateral relations, which mark a long history of mutual trust and mutual support,” the Foreign Office said.
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Khan is scheduled to visit the Monument to the People's Heroes at Beijing's Tiananmen Square and also meet the chairman of the National People's Congress on November 3.
On November 4, Khan will be speaking at the Central Party School before leaving for Shanghai to participate in the first China International Import Expo.
Khan will be a keynote speaker at the inauguration of the expo, and among 18 heads of state and government who will be attending the expo.
Before embarking on a visit to China, Prime Minister Khan told reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan could learn more from its all-weather strategic partner China than any other country in the world. "We have a lot to learn from China. China went through a lot of problems that we face right now,” he said.
"Like Pakistan, China too had a lot of corruption and poverty. But the way it has dealt with corruption and poverty has been an example for not just Pakistan but for a lot of the developing world,” Khan said. "We can learn more from China because China has recently developed as opposed to western economies, which are way ahead of us in terms of their development evolution," he further said.
Stressed the economic potential of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC), Khan said that the project has given a great opportunity to Pakistan to bring in foreign investment and get out of the difficult economic situation which we are in.
Praising China’s socio-economic development, Khan said "What China has achieved, no country in human history has managed to achieve, getting 700 million people out of poverty in 30 years.”
Meanwhile, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson recently said that the two countries attached great importance to Khan’s visit and believed that, with joint efforts of both sides, it would promote further development of relations between the all-weather strategic partners. "This is his first official visit to China since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, in which, the leaders of the two countries will conduct in-depth exchanges on issues of common concern,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press briefing in Beijing.
The spokesperson said China and Pakistan were all-weather strategic partners. The relationship between the two countries was not affected by the changes in the international situation and the changes in their respective domestic situations, he added.
