Chinese premier arrives in Pakistan for SCO meet, will bolster cooperation on CPEC

 Islamabad: Chinese prime minister Li Qiang on Monday arrived for a four-day visit during which he will attend the SCO summit and hold bilateral meetings with Pakistan leaders on several issues, including the strategic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

 This is the first visit by any Chinese premier to Pakistan in 11 years and comes on the back of recent attacks on Chinese nationals working on infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

 Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received Li along with cabinet ministers at the Nur Khan airbase at Rawalpindi near here.

 Li and other foreign leaders will attend the 23rd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Islamabad to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 Earlier there were speculations about Li’s participation in the wake of the killing of two Chinese workers in a suicide attack in Karachi and the ongoing agitation by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for the release of its jailed leader and former premier Imran Khan.

 State-run the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported ahead of Li’s visit that he would be meeting Pakistan’s civil and military leadership and attend the SCO summit during his October 14 to 17 visit.

 Sharif and Li will lead their respective delegations to comprehensively discuss all aspects of Pakistan-China relations, including economic and trade ties and cooperation under the USD 60 billion CPEC. The two sides will also discuss regional and global developments.

 Premier Li will also call on President Asif Ali Zardari and hold meetings with parliamentary leaders.

 Li is accompanied by ministers and senior officials, including from the ministries of foreign affairs and commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the China International Development Cooperation Agency.

 Pakistan’s Foreign Office termed the Chinese leader’s visit as “an expression of the importance attached by Pakistan and China to their ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’.”

 Earlier last week, Sharif assured the Chinese of personally overseeing the investigation into the Karachi attack, for which the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility.

 Later, on Friday, China said it had dispatched an inter-agency working group to Pakistan to review the security of scores of Chinese personnel working on the CPEC projects.

 Meanwhile, local media reports said, the high-level SCO meeting will be held with strict security measures in place as the government has announced a three-day public holiday in Islamabad, with schools and businesses shut, and large contingents of police and paramilitary forces deployed.

 Army troops are deployed for the security of the capital’s Red Zone, which will house most of the meetings and is also home to parliament and a diplomatic enclave, according to the interior ministry.