Beijing: Visiting Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has broached the Kashmir issue during his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, even as the two countries reaffirmed the importance of their defence cooperation in maintaining “strategic balance” in the region.
“The Pakistani side briefed the Chinese side on the latest developments in the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,” a joint statement issued after Zadrari’s visit to Beijing said on Thursday.
“The Chinese side reiterated that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is left over from history and should be properly and peacefully resolved in accordance with the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements”, it said.
Zardari, who arrived here for a five-day visit on Tuesday, met Xi on Wednesday. On Friday Zardari attended in Harbin the 9th Asian Winter Games, which was inaugurated by Xi.
On their defence ties, the joint statement said, “The two sides underscored that strategic defence and security cooperation between China and Pakistan plays an irreplaceable and critical role in maintaining peace, stability and strategic balance in the region.”
The two sides will continue to maintain high-level military-to-military visits and exchanges and elevate cooperation in areas of joint training, exercises and military technology.
Coinciding with Zardari’s visit, the two countries have agreed to enhance intelligence sharing and security cooperation to deal with recurring militant attacks against Chinese personnel working in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
While Xi met Zardari, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and his Chinese counterpart Qi Yanjun held lengthy talks regarding the attacks by Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and hardline Islamic militant groups, which are opposed to the USD 60 billion CPEC.
India too has conveyed its opposition to China CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
The CPEC, connecting China’s Xinjiang with Pakistan’s Gwadar port, was hailed as a game changer by Pakistan leaders but the project has also resulted in tensions between the two countries as Beijing is increasingly concerned about the recurring attacks on hundreds of Chinese working on CPEC projects in Pakistan.
The CPEC has also resulted in China emerging as Pakistan’s largest creditor, with 22 per cent or USD 28.8 billion of the country’s total external debt amounting to USD 130.85 billion in 2023, according to the World Bank’s International Debt Report.
During Zardari’s visit, China and Pakistan signed more than a dozen documents covering cooperation on CPEC, trade, science and technology, people’s livelihoods, and media, it said.
Meanwhile, the two sides also called on the Interim Afghan government to take visible and verifiable actions to dismantle and eliminate all terrorist groups based in Afghanistan which, they claimed, continue to pose a serious threat to regional and global security.
They also asked the Afghanistan government to prevent the use of Afghan territory against other countries. Pakistan has been complaining about recurring attacks by Pakistan Taliban militants using bases inside Afghanistan.
