FM Dar arrives in Beijing for strategic dialogue with Chinese counterpart

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday arrived in Beijing to co-chair the 5th Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue, the Foreign Office (FO) said.

Upon his arrival, Dar was received by Ambassador Wang Fu Kang and Pakistan’s envoy to China Dr Khalil Hashmi, the FO said in a post on X.

The foreign minister will co-chair the strategic dialogue with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, “covering the full spectrum of Pakistan-China relations”.

Dar will also hold meetings with Chinese leaders, senior officials and prominent business enterprises, it added.

In a press release issued earlier, the FO had said Dar would visit China on a four-day trip from May 13 to May 16.

The two sides would comprehensively review bilateral affairs, including economic and trade cooperation; high-level exchanges and visits; upgradation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and future connectivity initiatives, it had said.

Dar and Wang Yi would also exchange views on the “unfolding regional geopolitical landscape and bilateral cooperation at the multilateral fora”.

The FO had said that the foreign minister’s visit was part of “regular high-level changes” between the two friendly nations.

“It reflects the importance attached by the two countries to further deepening the ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’; reaffirming mutual support on issues of core interest; enhancing economic and trade cooperation including CPEC; and reinforcing joint commitment to regional peace and development,” it had highlighted.

The visit to Beijing is Dar’s first since the PML-N-led government came to power after the February 8 general elections.

It follows Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s visit to China last week, undertaken to pursue existing investors and financial institutions, and to tap in more firms in the transmission and distribution network as part of CPEC’s second phase.

Earlier, Dar and Zheng Jianbang, the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, had met on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in The Gambia.

There, the neighbours had expressed the determination to further enhance and upgrade cooperation on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.