Senior CPC leader meets Pakistan's PML-N chief

Visiting Communist Party of China (CPC) leader Li Changchun met here Thursday with Pakistan 's main opposition PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and leaders from the country's Punjab Province including Governor Latif Khosa.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), expressed his appreciation to Nawaz Sharif's long commitment to foster the friendship between China and Pakistan, noting the friendly bilateral ties, nurtured by the generations of the two leaders, have become a treasure to both sides.

"China always highly values the hard-won mutual trust and friendship with Pakistan and will continue to handle the bilateral relations in a strategic and long-term perspective," Li told Sharif, president of Pakistan Muslim League (N), expressing his confidence in the future of the two nations shaped by the joint efforts from the both sides.

Acknowledging the PML-N as an important political power in Pakistan, Li said the CPC attached great importance to the ties with the party and is willing to further promote the high-level exchanges and interactions among the young politicians and exchanges of successful experiences on party management to step up the party-to-party relations to a higher level.

"We hope to see the Pakistani political parties could reach comprehensive consensus and work closer to lead their people on the track of national stability and economic development," Li stressed.

Echoing Li's views, Nawaz Sharif said the political parties in Pakistan, despite their political differences, all share a common aspiration to bolster their relations with the CPC and China.

Nawaz Sharif also uttered his appreciation to what China has achieved under the CPC leadership, expressing his belief that Pakistan could continue to benefit from China's robust growth.

On the same day, Li also met with Latif Khosa and Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, governor and chief minister of Punjab province, respectively, conferring with them on the cooperation among Chinese and Pakistani governments at local levels.

At the invitation of the Pakistani government, Li arrived on Wednesday afternoon for a two-day goodwill official visit to Pakistan. Pakistan is the first leg of Li's three-nation visit to South Asia that will also bring him to the Maldives and Bangladesh.