China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Islamabad on Monday for his first state visit to Pakistan, where he is expected to announce investment of €42.77 billion in the south Asian neighbour described by state media as an "iron friend".
During the two-day trip to Islamabad, China and Pakistan will sign agreements for investments valued at €26 billion, Pakistan's planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said. Pakistan hopes the investment will boost its flagging economy and help end chronic power shortages.
Eight air force jets escorted Mr Xi’s plane into Pakistani airspace to start the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Pakistan in nine years. It comes shortly after China set up a number of measures which will benefit its neighbours through infrastructure projects.
These include €46.5 billion for China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and €37 billion for the Silk Road infrastructure fund.
China sees Pakistan as a key part of efforts to access the Indian Ocean over land to boost trade with Europe, Africa and the Middle East using a 3,000-kilometre corridor from the western Xinjiang region all the way to the Chinese-funded Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
These form part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which along with China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives forms a key part of China’s efforts to expand its influence in the region.
China spends far more than the United States in Pakistan, and according to surveys, it is viewed more favourably in Pakistan than anywhere else in Asia, and it is Pakistan's largest trading partner.
"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is located where the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road meet. It is, therefore, a major project of the 'Belt and Road' initiative," Mr Xi said in an interview published in Pakistan's Daily Times.
“We need to form a ‘1 plus 4’ cooperation structure with the Economic Corridor at the center, and Gwadar Port, energy, infrastructure and industrial cooperation being the four key areas to drive development across Pakistan and deliver tangible benefits to its people,” he said.
Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who greeted Mr Xi at the airport in Islamabad, said the visit would "usher in a new era of development in Pakistan and open a new chapter in bilateral relations between the two countries".
In an editorial in the China Daily newspaper, Khalid Rahman, director general of Institute of Policy Studies in Islamabad, hailed "exemplary" relations between the two countries over more than six decades.
“The visit of President Xi Jinping to Pakistan represents a continuity of the age-old bilateral ties as well as a stepping stone for promoting stability, peace and progress in the region and the world beyond,” he said.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was a recent initiative, he said, but the foundation was laid in the 1970s when the two countries jointly built the Karakoram Highway, and the 2000s when the Gwadar Port was planned and the project was assigned to China.
Security is also likely to figure in discussions.
China worries that ethnic Uighurs from the Xinjiang region could team up with Uighur Islamic militants fighting alongside members of Pakistan’s Taliban.
