ISTANBUL

As the Pakistani army voiced support for “further development” of the country’s relations with China, Beijing hailed Islamabad as a defender of “ironclad” bilateral relations.

General Asim Munir made his comments after he met China’s foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, in Beijing late Thursday, a readout from Beijing said.

“The Pakistani army firmly supports the further development of Pakistan-China relations,” Munir told Wang, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and state media.

“Pakistan will always stand with China through thick and thin no matter how the international situation changes,” Munir told Wang.

Asim’s meeting with Wang came on the same day when Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke to his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang on Thursday, their first contact since the latter took office last month.

Islamabad, during the phone call, had reiterated its support for China on the Taiwan issue.

Sharif congratulated Li and reiterated Pakistan’s “unstinting” support to Beijing’s “one-China” policy, as well as its stance on Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the South China Sea.

Wang lauds successive Pakistani administrations, political parties for commitment to China

Wang told Munir that the Pakistani army was a staunch defender of the “ironclad friendship” between China and Pakistan, which is “founded on mutual respect, trust and support, and has withstood changes in the international landscape.”

The Chinese foreign policy chief also “commended successive Pakistani administrations and all political parties for their commitment to friendly policies towards China.”

“China will continue to firmly support Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, achieving unity, stability, and development, and playing an active role in the region and the world as a major Muslim country,” Wang told Munir, who is a on four-day trip to Pakistan’s close ally.

China and Pakistan have seen bilateral relations strengthening over decades, with annual trade rising over $27 billion, while the two countries have also strengthened defense relations. Their cooperation at multilateral forums such as the UN has become more consistent.

Meanwhile, China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Co Ltd has carried out a study on a proposed railway connecting Pakistan’s port of Gwadar in the South Asian nation’s southwestern Balochistan province to Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.

If done, it would be Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) most expensive transport infrastructure, costing around 400 billion yuan ($57.7 billion), according to the daily South China Morning Post.

The study has deemed the project as of “strategic significance” for China.

Since 2014, China has invested around $28 billion in various energy and infrastructure projects in the South Asian country under the BRI’s flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, allowing the world’s second-largest economy to reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea via the Gwadar Port.

Wang told Munir that the two sides should take the 10th anniversary of the BRI as well as CPEC – that falls next year – as an “opportunity to promote the quality and efficiency of the corridor and help Pakistan enhance its independent development capabilities.”

The CPEC also drew hundreds of Chinese workers and institutions to establish bases in Pakistan, which has seen few terrorist attacks inside the South Asian nation.

In a rare case, a Chinese national working on Pakistan’s Dasu Dam, identified only as Tian, was earlier this month arrested on charges of alleged blasphemy and was set free on Thursday after a court granted him bail in Abbottabad city. Tian has denied the charges.