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FM Qureshi Claims PM Imran’s China Trip “Productive”

Islamabad (November 06, 2018): Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday claimed that the trip was “productive to the extent that we are out of the woods” and said that the bilateral ties with China will further strengthen after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to the all-weather friend of the country.

Addressing a press conference, flanked by Finance Minister Asad Umar and Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal in Islamabad, he said the visit was aimed at achieving four objectives and to dismiss rumours that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was not giving due importance to relationship with China.

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“We wanted to send a clear message to the international community that we are close to China. Secondly, our relations are unique and will remain so. This tour helped in moving the strategic relationship to an economic partnership,” he remarked.

“I think the tour was very beneficial in a bid to give it an economic dimension. Around 15 agreements and MoUs have been signed at the end of the tour which included that the strategic dialogue between the two sides be upgraded and now it will be upgraded to the foreign ministers level.”

Qureshi said that during the visit, it was also agreed that prisoners will be transferred so that they can spend the sentence in their own countries. “Another MoU was regarding poverty alleviation. China has immense experience in this regard,” said the foreign minister.Another MoU was signed in the agriculture sector, said the minister.

Qureshi said the second purpose of the visit was to seek assistance to stabilise the country’s economy. “Discussion were held to increase exports. We have also decided that the second phase of FTA [free trade agreement] will be completed soon and by April we will complete negotiations in this regard.”

“We decided that our strategic dialogue must be upgraded and its level be raised to the FM level,” he said. “It was also decided to transfer our citizens sentenced there and theirs sentenced here so that they could serve their sentences in their own countries.

“Thirdly, the MoU which is important to me is poverty alleviation. China is a country that has taken 700 million people out poverty in the last 30 years. One-third of our population also lives below the poverty line — so the purpose of this MoU was to learn from the Chinese experience.”“The fourth MoU was regarding agricultural cooperation,” he said. “We think that through transfer of technology, we can get a lot from China. We can learn how to increase our productivity and our per-acre produce.”

Qureshi claimed that the trip also served to rubbish the notion that the Pak-China relationship would suffer under the PTI government.

“The perception that some people here tried to give that the government was not paying attention to our relationship with China,” he said. “There is nothing to it. I can say that our relations with China are not just great but could get even better than before.

“This visit helped us in moving our relationship towards an economic partnership. We have always had good strategic relations so our aim [this time] was to figure how to advance the economic footprint.”

The foreign minister said he is confident that the discussion with the Chinese counterparts would help Pakistan “double its exports”.He further said that the two sides would try and wrap up the second phase of the Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by April 2019.

Meanwhile, a statement released by the finance ministry said that Pakistani and Chinese leaders “noted with satisfaction that CPEC’s first stage, which comprised of infrastructure and energy sector improvements, has almost been completed.”

The two sides, according to the ministry’s press release, “decided that the next stage of CPEC will focus on industrial expansion, agricultural revitalization and trade integration of the two economies. This phase will help the Government of Pakistan in achieving its objectives of job creation and export growth.”

The finance ministry stated that “discussions on immediate market access for Pakistan’s exports as well as balance of payments support” also took place in Beijing.“The top Chinese leadership expressed their strong support and a task force was established by both sides to discuss the matters further,” the statement reads, adding that “a senior level delegation comprising of federal secretaries of finance, foreign affairs, planning & development and commerce along with the State Bank of Pakistan’s governor will undertake a visit to China during the current week to work out the modalities”.

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