Islamabad:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will carry out a visit of almost a week to China from Saturday to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and hold bilateral meetings with Chinese leadership.
“At the invitation of Mr. Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif is visiting China from August 30 to September 4, 2025 to attend the Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization of Shanghai of State Summit heads held in Tianjin,” said a statement issued here by the foreign office on Friday.
In China, the prime minister would hold meetings with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang during which multifaceted dimensions of the Bilateral Cooperation of Pakistan-China would be discussed, the Foreign Ministry said.
He would also attend the military parade with President XI and other world leaders who stop in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the world’s anti -fascist war.
The Prime Minister would interact with the reputed Chinese entrepreneurs and corporate executives to discuss bilateral trade, economic and investment ties. He would also go to a Pakistan-China B2B investment conference in Beijing.
The visit is part of the exchanges at the level of leadership between Pakistan and China. The importance associated by the two countries is manifested to further deepen their “strategic cooperative association of the entire climate”, to reaffirm support in respective central interests, Advanced Phase II of CPEC and maintain regular communication in important regional and global developments, read the declaration of the foreign office.
This will be the first visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz from the Pakistan-India War in May after Pahalgam’s attack. Pakistan came out victorious when he knocked at least 6 Indian combat planes, including the very advanced French made Rafale. It was the first time that Chinese military hardware was tested on a real battlefield against Western technology.
China’s profile in terms of military technology has increased by some notches, since Western commentators admitted that Beijing is not along with other western countries in terms of defense equipment.
The visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz also reaches a critical situation when the world and the region are experiencing important transformations. On the one hand, Pakistan’s ties with the United States have seen an unprecedented upward movement, while the Indian relationship with Washington reached a new minimum. In the midst of all this, India has been some impulse to restore ties with China.
Recently, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, traveled to New Delhi, the first visit of a Chinese diplomat in three years. The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, must also visit China to attend the SCO Summit and meet with President XI.
However, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who traveled to Kabul and Islamabad after his scale in New Delhi, made it clear that Beijing-Islamabad ties would remain solids as a rock.
Pakistan also transmitted in unequivocal terms that his improved links with the United States, the largest adversary in China, would not be related to his strategic association with Beijing.
