The fourth round of Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue was held in Islamabad last day. To be a part of this round of negotiations, the new Chinese foreign minister arrived in Islamabad directly from India after attending SCO summit in Goa.
According to the declaration issued after the Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, Pakistan and China have agreed to continue supporting mutual interests. It was also the first official visit of the new Chinese foreign minister to Pakistan. The two foreign ministers jointly chaired the fourth round of the Strategic Dialogue, during which cooperation in the political, economic, defense, security, education and cultural sectors was reviewed.
Pakistan and China are long time partners and two such neighboring countries, whose mutual relations are based on the positive foundation of warm cooperation with each other in an atmosphere of respect. And their mutual cooperation and friendship are not tainted by negative ambitions towards any third party.
China has not only cooperated technically with Pakistan in many sectors of economy and society, from defense industry to technology, electricity, water reservoirs and road infrastructure but also provided finical help in these sectors. And as always, many important Chinese projects of economic importance across the country are underway.
In today’s era, every country needs more and more positive foreign relations for dominance and influence at the international level, not only countries with expansionist ambitions and world powers, but these are the needs of every small and large country to be safe from the difficulties and implications of diplomatic isolation in the world and to avoid the and plans of rivals and ill-wishers.
Therefore, while China is an influential country that stands with Pakistan in its need and in every difficulty, Pakistan’s standing on the side of China in various regional and global disputes also has a great meaning for China. If on the one side China has always supported Pakistan’s position in international forums on the Kashmir issue besides economic and financial cooperation, on the other side Pakistan has always stood by China’s side in many regional and international disputes including Taiwan, South China Sea and Asia Pacific under the “One China Policy”.
Cooperation between Pakistan and China is an economic and political necessity of both countries, not only Pakistan is benefiting from these relations, China is also benefiting greatly. Especially after completion of CPEC, when Kashgar will be connected to Gwadar and a line of financial transportation from Kashgar to Gwadar will be established, then China will get enormous economic benefits and Pakistan will also get huge profits.
If this journey of economic cooperation between Pakistan and China goes ahead successfully, its positive effects will be reflected in other countries of the region as well and thus, with peaceful economic cooperation, rich economic activities will start in the entire region.
Pakistan is going through the most difficult economic crisis in its history, in such a situation, the cooperation of sincere friends like China is an important resource for Pakistan to successfully overcome this period of difficulties. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are so low at the moment that they do not have the ability to spend on development projects for economic stability within the country. As much as there is and whatever comes in the form of loans and friendly cooperation or mortgages, on the other hand goes to the installments and interest of the loans.In such a situation, it is necessary to persuade benevolent friends like China to invest in more and more development projects in Pakistan so that the gap in the ratio of expenditure and income can be filled, due to which the country’s economy is in poor condition.
The strategic and defense sector has also been of great importance in the mutual relations between Pakistan and China since the beginning. In recent times, there has been an atmosphere of competition between China and America in many sectors. It is clear that the United States is not happy with China’s economic expansion and the increase in its influence at the regional and global levels through its economic policies. So, it has waged a cold war, under which it is pursuing a strategy of harming Chinese interests around the world and obstructing it with various tactics and tricks.
Pakistan is China’s time-tested and sincere friend who stands by it in all kinds good and bad situations. In order to put pressure on China, America is trying to confuse China in different fronts, it is also trying to force Pakistan to reduce its cooperation with China through various tactics. The evidence is clear that the US is also using the IMF for this purpose, which is the reason why the IMF continues to hesitate in giving a new loan installment to Pakistan despite fulfilling all the demands and conditions.
It is clear from this US strategy that Pakistan is paying the price of its unbreakable friendship with China. This matter is certainly not hidden from the eyes of the Chinese leadership, China also knows very well that Pakistan alone cannot resist these conspiracies of America.
There is a need for both friendly countries to choose common ways to get Pakistan out of the economic crisis, ending dependence on the dollar and doing transactions in local currency is one way of this, which should be started immediately. We believe that China, as a benevolent friend, should also pay attention to its role in resolving the differences between Pakistan’s warring political parties, because only a stable country can successfully withstand external pressure and the conspiracies of authoritarian forces. Unfortunately, Pakistan has been trapped in the worst instability due to political wars between politicians for a long time. If China can achieve lasting reconciliation among political parties, it will not be only a friendly favor to the Pakistani nation, but by this reconciliation Chinese interests in Pakistan could be protected in a better way.
