CPEC achieves ‘remarkable results’: Chinese Prez Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday that the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has achieved “remarkable results” and brought important benefits to people of both countries.

He made the remarks in an exchange of congratulatory messages with his Pakistan counterpart Arif Alvi on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In recent years, with joint efforts of both sides, the construction of CPEC has achieved “remarkable results”, bringing important benefits to the two peoples and adding strong impetus to regional prosperity, the state-run news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.

India has protested to China over CPEC, the flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In his message, Xi said China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.

The mutual trust and friendship between the two countries have withstood the test of the changing international landscape over the past 70 years and always remained rock solid, he said.

In a separate message to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China has always prioritised Pakistan in its foreign policy, and is ready to work with it to lift their all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level in the next 70 years.

Khan said in his message that the Pakistani government was firmly committed to speeding up the construction of CPEC and is willing to work with China to push for further development of the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, so as to create a better future for their people.

The CPEC is a flagship project of China's prestigious Silk Road project, officially called OBOR.

The 3,000-km CPEC is aimed at connecting China and Pakistan with rail, road, pipelines and optical fibre cable networks and It will connect Xinjiang province with Gwadar port, providing China with access to the Arabian Sea.

The project, when completed, would enable China to route its oil supplies from the Middle East through pipelines to Xinjiang, cutting considerable distance for Chinese ships to travel to China.