China's President Xi Jinping hailed Beijing's "unbreakable" friendship with Pakistan on Monday as he met visiting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, seeking to deepen their "all-weather" partnership.
Pakistan is among an exclusive group of countries China regards as an "all-weather strategic partner," with ties featuring close economic, trade and security cooperation. But repeated extremist attacks on Chinese nationals and projects in the South Asian country have emerged as an irritant, while Islamabad's warming ties with Washington have added complexity to its ties with Beijing.
Greeting Sharif at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Xi called the Pakistani leader an "old friend" and said the two countries had "understood, trusted and supported each other" over decades, forging an "unbreakable traditional friendship."
"No matter how the international situation changes, China always prioritises the development of China-Pakistan relations in its neighbourhood diplomacy," Xi said.
LET'S WORK TOGETHER
Beijing was willing to work with Islamabad to build a more close-knit China-Pakistan community with a shared future and achieve more in their "all-weather" cooperation, Xi added.
Sharif, in turn, called China and Pakistan two "iron brother" countries with a relationship that is "next to none".
He was accompanied at Monday's meeting by Pakistan's Army chief, Asim Munir, who was recently in Tehran for meetings with the Iranian leadership.
Following a rickety ceasefire in the Iran conflict, achieved in April, Pakistan hosted mediation talks in Islamabad between Washington and Tehran, relaying proposals and missives between the warring countries even when tensions escalated.
Weeks into Islamabad's diplomatic efforts, Washington has reported progress in negotiations with Tehran.
"I know that you have just returned from Iran and made positive efforts for the current peace. We still appreciate the constructive role played by Pakistan," Xi said.
For Pakistan, engaging China in its mediation efforts is important given Beijing and Tehran's close ties.
China and Pakistan issued a five-point initiative in March as their foreign ministers met in Beijing, calling for peace talks and restoration of normal navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes.
