PM Imran Khan meets President Xi Jinping; $6 billion Chinese package expected

BEIJING: China is expected to announce a $6 billion financial package for Pakistan during Prime Minister Imran Khan visit.

The package includes, $1.5 billion in grant, $1.5 billion in loans and an additional $3 billion CPEC package.

PM Imran Khan on Friday met with President Xi on his first visit to China since assuming office. The PM arrived in Beijing on four-day official visit at the invitation of the Chinese leadership. 

During meeting, according to sources, the prime minister took the Chinese leader into confidence over third country investment in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Meeting Xi in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Khan said he’d come to China to learn.

“My party has only been in power for two months. Unfortunately we have inherited a very difficult economic situation,” Khan said.

“Countries go in cycles. They have their high points, they have their low points. Unfortunately, our country is going through a low point at the moment with two very big deficits, a fiscal deficit and a current account deficit. And so we, as I’ve said, have come to learn.”

Xi told Khan that he highly valued the two country’s relations, reaffirming they were “all-weather” friends.

“I attach great importance to China-Pakistan relations and am willing to work together with the prime minister to strengthen the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic partnership and build a new era of China-Pakistan destiny,” Xi said.

Neither man mentioned any economic aid in comments made in front of reporters.

However, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a separate meeting that China would not let Pakistan down.

“The Chinese side will continue to provide support and help to the best of its ability for Pakistan’s economic and social development and national construction,” China’s Foreign Ministry cited Wang as saying, without giving details.

Khan will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday, when the two countries are expected to sign a series of agreements.

The prime minister will also attend China International Import Expo (CIIE) on November 5 in Shanghai. He will participate in the opening ceremony of the CIIE, and deliver a keynote speech.

Khan was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Asad Umar, Advisor on Commerce and Trade Abdul Razzak Dawood, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed among others.

Earlier this week, the Chinese foreign ministry had said that the PM Imran's visit would provide an opportunity for the leaders of the two countries to open a new chapter of the development of bilateral relations under the new circumstances.

The two countries are close friends, good neighbours and development partners. The bilateral relationship has withstood the test of times. Regardless of domestic or international changes, this close friendship has served as a model of state-to-state relations for other countries.