Xi Jinping greets new Pak President Zardari; says close China-Pakistan ties ‘choice of history’

The late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Zardari, was resoundingly elected as Pakistan’s 14th President on Saturday, making history as the nation’s only two-term civilian leader.

Zardari, who is also the co-chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was the joint candidate of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which forms the ruling coalition.

In his message to Zardari, Xi said “China and Pakistan are good neighbours, good friends, good partners and good brothers, adding that the two countries’ iron-clad friendship is a choice of history and a precious treasure of the two peoples.”

Xi said that “the two countries have in recent years maintained close high-level exchanges, supported each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns, achieved fruitful results in the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and maintained a high level of development of bilateral relations,” state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

India has taken issue with China’s $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which travels through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to connect Gwadar port in Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province.

In his speech, Xi stated that the strategic importance of China-Pakistan relations has grown as the globe faces faster changes than it has in a century.

In order to better serve the interests of the two peoples, Xi stated that he holds the development of China-Pakistan relations in the highest regard and that he is prepared to collaborate with President Zardari to uphold the historical friendship between the two countries, advance practical cooperation in a variety of fields, and push for the expansion of the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

Earlier, Xi greeted Shehbaz Sharif on being elected as Pakistan’s Prime Minister.

The return of Shehbaz and his brother Nawaz Sharif as well as Zardari at the helm of Pakistan’s politics and government amid chaos and severe economic crisis in Pakistan is viewed with a sense of relief here as all three of them over their years in power in the past few decades maintained close ties with Chinese leaders and furthered the strategic ties with Beijing viewed widely as a strategic alliance against India.

China had an uneasy relationship with former prime minister Imran Khan’s government which was blamed for the slow pace of USD 60 billion CPEC.

China has been providing forex loans and rollover of its debt periodically to bail out Pakistan which is facing a severe economic crisis.

Recent reports from Islamabad said China has agreed to roll over a USD two billion loan due to be paid in March.