Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng arrived in Pakistan on Sunday on a three-day visit where the two sides are expected to sign multiple agreements. “During the visit, the vice premier will attend the 10th-anniversary celebrations of CPEC and call on the president and the prime minister,” the foreign office said in a statement. “He will also be the chief guest at an event celebrating the decade of CPEC.” Lifeng will meet PM Shehbaz at the Prime Minister House on Monday. He will engage delegation-level talks with Pakistani officials and will also meet Shehbaz one-on-one. Multiple MOUs are expected to be signed. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, and Special Assistant to the PM on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi received the Chinese vice prime minister upon his arrival in Islamabad on Sunday. Vice Premier He Lifeng has played a “prominent role” in China’s international economic relations and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is a flagship project. As the chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission from 2017-23, the FO said that he was “instrumental” in the planning and execution of multiple CPEC projects in Pakistan. The visit is part of regular high-level exchanges and dialogue between Pakistan and China. The Islamabad administration has announced a two-day local holiday in the federal capital in view of the security measures taken on the visit of He Lifeng, who is also the special representative of Chinese President Xi Jinping. 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,” said the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday. China has hoped that the visit would 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”.
Chinese Vice Premier to meet PM Shehbaz today
