Conference urges people-to-people exchange to strengthen Pakistan-China friendship

A conference on "Pakistan-China friendship: Taking it to new heights" late on Wednesday called for a solid framework of cooperation and people-to-people exchanges to strengthen the relations.

The conference was organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and attended by IPRI chairman Ambassador Sohail Amin, Senator Raja Zafar ul Haq, former Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Director of Strategic Studies Institute Fazal ur Rehman, representatives of different think tanks and university students.

Yao Wen, charge d'affaires of Chinese embassy in Islamabad, said Pakistan and China have decided to forge the community of shared destiny and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor serves as the most important platform for achieving the objective.

"The construction of the projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will promote the flow of resources and raise the level of economic cooperation between the two countries and bring more benefits to the people as well," Yao said in his keynote speech.

Senator Raja Zafar ul Haq said Pakistan and China have always enjoyed close friendly ties and now their unique friendship has entered into a deep mutual trust and confidence that cannot be found in any other part of the world.

"It's satisfactory that there has been a growing realization on both sides about the bilateral economic and commercial cooperation and people-to-people interactions which will strengthen the bilateral relations," said Haq.