Q: China just announced that Special Representative of President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier of the State Council He Lifeng will attend the Decade of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor celebration event in Pakistan. Can you share with us China’s expectation for Vice Premier He Lifeng’s visit?

A: This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by President Xi Jinping, and also the 10th anniversary of the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Over the past decade, as an important pioneering project of the BRI, CPEC has achieved fruitful results and become a new benchmark for the friendship between China and Pakistan. To mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of CPEC, the Pakistani government will hold a grand celebration event in the country’s capital Islamabad. Special Representative of President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier of the State Council He Lifeng will travel to Pakistan to attend the event and meet with the leaders of Pakistan.

China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and iron-clad friends. The friendship is time-honored. China hopes that this visit will be an opportunity for both sides to jointly implement the important consensus between leaders of the two countries, renew the traditional friendship, build on past achievements and upgrade the development of CPEC, consolidate and deepen the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, advance the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era and contribute to the development and prosperity of the region and beyond.