ISLAMABAD (APP) - Chinese ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong on Sunday said China was ready to work with Pakistan to “actively implement” its Global South initiative of common development and shared cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently announced a series of measures for the Global South countries including establishing a Global South research center, 1,000 scholarships under the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Scholarship of Excellence and 100,000 training opportunities to Global South countries in the next five years.
In an interview with APP, the Chinese envoy expressed his country’s readiness to implement these measures for Pakistan along with other countries, which he said showed “China’s firm determination to promote the development and revitalization of the Global South”.
Ambassador Jiang highlighted that China’s five principles of peaceful coexistence provided a vision to address the global challenges and ensure a shared vision of global peace, security and prosperity.
The Global South region, he said, in recent years stood out with a strong momentum, with its contribution to world economic growth in the past two decades as high as 80 percent, and the global share of GDP increased from 24 percent to more than 40 percent in the past 40 years.
He said in political field, the Global South countries were no longer the silent majority on the international stage, and were regarded as the “key force for the transformation of the international order”.
He said President Xi at the recent Beijing Declaration of the Conference marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence pointed out that the Global South should take the lead in building a community with a shared future for mankind. Pakistan also joined the conference amid high-level representation from more than 100 countries.
The envoy said China was ready to work with all countries to implement this important initiative, and jointly act as the “staunch force for peace, development and global governance, making new contributions to strengthening South-South and North-South cooperation, and promoting human progress”.
He said China would firmly support Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity, in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions.
“China is willing to work with Pakistan to take the opportunity of implementing the outcomes of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to accelerate the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, and bring more tangible benefits to our two peoples,” he said.
PM Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to China last month in particular focused on strategic and security cooperation, and materializing ensuring an upgraded version of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The Chinese envoy said the visit achieved “expected goals and fruitful results” and provided guideline for promoting the all-weather strategic cooperation in the new era.
“Through Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit, the leaders of the two countries have drawn a blueprint, pointed out the path, and determined measures for the development of China-Pakistan relations in the new era,” he said.
He mentioned that the two sides agreed for cooperation in various sectors including mining, development of offshore oil and gas resources, clean energy, artificial intelligence, science and technology, finance and space cooperation.
“These practical measures will surely inject new impetus and open up new prospects for consolidating, deepening and expanding practical cooperation,” he said.
Ambassador Jiang said President Xi Jinping attached great importance to the development of China-Pakistan relations and personally promoted it.
In terms of major cooperation, he highlighted consensus on accelerating the Main Line-1 railways and Karakoram Highway projects, the year-round operation of the Khunjerab Pass, development of Gwadar Port, and supporting Chinese companies to invest and operate in the Special Economic Zones.
“At present, China-Pakistan cooperation is facing important opportunities for quality improvement and upgrading, but also under the realistic pressure of climbing over obstacles,” he said.
He emphasized strengthening Sino-Pak cooperation at international forums to jointly safeguard multilateralism given China’s presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Pakistan’s upcoming hosting of the meeting of the SCO’s Council of Heads of Government besides its non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.
On security cooperation, he expressed confidence that the high-level consensus and joint efforts of relevant departments of both sides would take the security cooperation to new heights, providing safe environment and reliable protection for the development of China-Pakistan relations.
He recalled that since the visit was carried out after the terrorist attack on the Chinese convoy of the Dasu Hydropower Project on March 26th, 2024, both sides attached great importance to security issues.
“President Xi Jinping made it clear that China supports Pakistan in firmly combating terrorism and hopes that Pakistan will continue to create a safe, stable and predictable business environment and effectively protect the safety of Chinese nationals, projects and institutions in Pakistan,” he said.
He mentioned that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised that Pakistan would resolutely crack down on and severely punish the terrorists involved and take all measures necessary to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.
The envoy appreciated that Pakistan firmly supported the Chinese government’s every effort to achieve national reunification and on the issues concerning Xinjiang, Xizang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.