China stands ready to work with Pakistan to upgrade Cpec project: Report

ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: China has said that it stands ready to work with Pakistan to upgrade the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (Cpec) project to deepen the political mutual trust between the two "all-weather" allies, a media report said on Thursday. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said after having achieved the first phase of the Cpec, Pakistan is benefiting from its early harvest projects while remaining engaged with China to execute the next phase.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin while answering a question during a briefing on Wednesday said, "China stands ready to work with Pakistan to deliver on the important common understandings between the leaders of the two countries, deepen political mutual trust, and expand practical cooperation."

China has said it is ready to work with Pakistan to upgrade the Cpec and accelerate the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is opposed by India as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

About the recent visit of Chinese vice foreign minister Sun Weidong to Pakistan, Wang said, he called on President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Kakar, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Chief of the Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir and foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani to have an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.

The spokesperson added that the Chinese minister also co-chaired the fourth meeting of the CPEC Joint Working Group on International Cooperation and Coordination with foreign secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi.

"China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners," he said. China appreciates Pakistan's firm commitment to the One-China principle and supports Pakistan in defending its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, stability, development and prosperity.

In Islamabad, Prime Minister Kakar said that after having achieved the first phase of CPEC, Pakistan is benefiting from its early harvest projects while remaining engaged with China to execute the next phase.

"We have already achieved the CPEC's first phase and we are benefiting from its early harvest projects. We are entering the second phase. We do need more deliberations when it comes to the second phase," he said in an interview recorded by CGTN during his recent visit to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum.

The Chinese state-run news outlet ran the interview on Wednesday. Prime Minister Kakar said the CPEC's second phase required road and air connectivity around industrialisation projects.

"Both sides are engaged and we have developed a lot of connectivity - road, air and the rest of the connectivity corridor. We are benefiting from the ecosystem of doing trade with one another," he said.

Asked how he saw the Chinese economy, the prime minister said: "I am always sanguine about it. There are 1.5 billion consumers and 1.5 billion producers... How can you divorce 1.5 billion people from 8 billion people? It has to remain connected."