Chinese, Pakistani FMs vow to strengthen bilateral ties

BEIJING -- State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday, with both sides pledging to further strengthen the Sino-Pakistani all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.

Wang said that on the very last day of 2020, it is of great significance for China and Pakistan to communicate as "ironclad" friends, whose all-weather strategic cooperative partnership has stood the test and maintained a strong development momentum in the face of major changes unseen in a century and a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Wang stressed that whatever changes may take place in the world and whatever difficulties and challenges may confront the two countries, China will always stick to its friendly policy toward Pakistan.

China is willing to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in a larger scope with Pakistan, and jointly build an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future, he said.

China highly appreciates Pakistan's valuable support on issues concerning China's core interests, and will always stand firmly with Pakistan on issues concerning Pakistan's core interests, Wang said.

The two sides should steadily advance the high-quality development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), focus on key projects such as the Gwadar Port and the upgrading of the Main Line-1 railway, promote cooperation in industry, agriculture, as well as in science and technology, and enhance Pakistan's capacity for development, he said.

China is willing to provide Pakistan with as much support as possible in anti-epidemic materials, technology and experience to help Pakistan defeat the coronavirus, Wang said.

Both sides should finish the phase III clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in Pakistan at an early date, to ensure that the vaccine cooperation benefits the Pakistani people as soon as possible, Wang added.

For his part, Qureshi said that China is the anchor of regional peace and stability, and the progress made in Pakistan-China relations this year is encouraging.

No matter how the international and regional situation changes, Pakistan will continue strengthening its all-weather strategic cooperative partnership with China, he said.

Pakistan appreciates China's outstanding achievements in fighting the coronavirus, and is willing to further strengthen vaccine research and development cooperation with China, he said, expressing hope that China will facilitate Pakistan's procurement of Chinese vaccines.

Pakistan attaches great importance to the construction of the CPEC and is ready to push forward cooperation with China in major projects such as the Gwadar Port program, Qureshi said.