Our relationship ‘historical choice’: China’s Xi Jinping congratulates Pakistan’s new president

Xi Jinping said in a letter to Zardari that China and Pakistan are “good neighbors”

Beijing:

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on his election as Pakistan’s president, saying the “iron friendship” between the two countries was a “historical choice” and the “strategic significance” of their relationship was more prominent. “Outstanding” in terms of current changes in the world.

Zardari, the husband of late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was elected in a landslide as Pakistan’s 14th president on Saturday, becoming the coup-prone country’s only civilian president for the second time.

Zardari is the co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party and a joint candidate of the ruling alliance of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

In his letter to Zardari, Xi Jinping stated that China and Pakistan are good neighbors, good friends, good partners, and good brothers. The iron-clad friendship between the two countries is a historical choice and a precious treasure of the two peoples. “.

Xi Jinping said that in recent years, the two countries have maintained close high-level exchanges and supported each other on issues involving each other’s core interests and major concerns. The construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has achieved fruitful results and bilateral relations have developed at a high level,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

India opposes China’s $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which connects China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Gwadar port in Balochistan province, because the corridor passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Xi Jinping said in his congratulatory message that the world today is facing profound changes unseen in a century, and the strategic significance of China-Pakistan relations has become even more prominent.

Xi Jinping said that I attach great importance to the development of China-Pakistan relations and am willing to work with President Zardari to carry forward the traditional friendship between China and Pakistan, promote practical cooperation in various fields, and promote greater development of China-Pakistan all-weather cause. The China-Pakistan strategic cooperative partnership will accelerate the construction of a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era and better benefit the two peoples.

Previously, Xi Jinping welcomed the election of Sherbaz Sharif as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The return of Shehbaz and his brothers Nawaz Sharif and Zardari to Pakistani politics and government amid chaos and a severe economic crisis in the country is a relief as all three have been in power for many years The United States has maintained close ties with Chinese leaders over the past few decades and has further deepened its strategic relationship with Beijing, which is widely seen as a strategic alliance against India.

China has had a rocky relationship with the government of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, which was blamed for slow progress on the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

China has been regularly providing foreign exchange loans and debt rollovers to bail out Pakistan, which is facing a severe economic crisis.

Recent reports from Islamabad suggest that China has agreed to defer repayments of a $2 billion loan due to be disbursed in March.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)