Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China

  • Last updated: February 5, 2025 | 17:35
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
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Xi Jinpin shakes hands with Asif Ali Zardari at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. AP
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
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Xi Jinping greets Asif Ali Zardari at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. AP
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
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Health workers walk on snow during a polio vaccination drive in Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley on February 4, 2025. The Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled on February 3 to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases. (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
play icon
A health worker walks on snow during a polio vaccination drive in Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley on February 4, 2025. The Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled on February 3 to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases. (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
play icon
Health workers walk on snow during a polio vaccination drive in Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley on February 4, 2025. The Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled on February 3 to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases. (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
play icon
A health worker marks a child's finger after administering polio drops during a vaccination drive in Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley on February 4, 2025. The Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled on February 3 to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases. (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
play icon
A health worker administers polio drops to a child during a door-to-door vaccination campaign amidst heavy snow in the Bakwali-Surgan area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley, on February 4, 2025. The Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled on February 3, to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases. (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)
Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
play icon
A health worker climbs during a door-to-door poliovirus vaccination campaign amidst heavy snow in the Bakwali-Surgan area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley, on February 4, 2025. The Pakistani Taliban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled on February 3, to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases. (Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP)

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday that his country's friendship with China has "gone through ups and downs” but it won't be broken down by extremist attacks that have killed Chinese nationals that have killed Chinese nationals.

"Pakistan and China will always be friends, all-weather friends,” he said at the opening of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. "No matter how many terrors, how many issues crop up in the world, I will stand, Pakistan people will stand with the people of China.”

Thousands of Chinese workers work in Pakistan on road and other infrastructure projects under China's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to improve trade routes and deepen China’s ties with the rest of the world. Chinese workers have been among those targeted in attacks in recent years, including seven who died last year in two separate attacks that raised renewed alarm in China.

Pakistan's president says extremist attacks won't end friendship with China
Xi Jinping and Asif Ali Zardari walk past honour guards during the welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. AP

Zardari arrived in China on Tuesday on a four-day visit that will also take him to the wintry northeastern city of Harbin for the opening ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games. He said that many forces are trying to disturb the relationship between the two countries by launching attacks on "Chinese brothers.”

Xi said that China and Pakistan have an enduring friendship and have set a model for relations between two countries by advancing the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and cooperation in various fields.

A Chinese-funded $230 million airport, the largest in Pakistan, started operations last month in the coastal city of Gwadar in Baluchistan province, where a separatist group has launched multiple attacks targeting many groups including Chinese.

A shipping port in Gwadar is the end of the envisioned economic corridor, which would cross the length of Pakistan to link the western Chinese region of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea.

"The Chinese side is willing to work with the Pakistani side to move forward hand-in-hand on our respective paths of modernisation,” Xi said.

Associated Press

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