Boao, China:
The discussions of Pakistan and China about security measures to protect Chinese citizens who work in the southern country are a work in Progreso, Islamabad ambassador to Beijing said Wednesday.
It is the “national responsibility” of Pakistan and the country is “doing everything possible,” said Ambassador Khalil Hashmi to journalists outside the Boao Forum in the province of Hainan of China.
“I think our two countries work very closely in terms of information exchange, in terms of developing standard operational procedures” to ensure that Chinese citizens who work in Pakistan are safe, he said. “We keep our Chinese friends informed of the steps we are taking, so it is a job in progress.”
Beijing has been pressing Islamabad to allow its own security personnel to provide protection to thousands of Chinese citizens who work there, frustrated by the series of attacks against their citizens. The impulse occurred after a bombing at the Karachi airport last October killed two Chinese engineers who returned there to work in an energy plant.
Hashmi said that these conversations are ongoing, with a high degree of confidence between the two countries. “It is a complex security environment,” he said, “we have the ability to resolve, counteract, combat and defeat these terrorist forces.”
