Spotlight: China, Pakistan strive to build closer community of common destiny

As this year is designated as the China-Pakistan Year of Friendly Exchange, the two "iron friends" and all-weather partners of strategic cooperation are striving to inherit and promote their traditional friendship forged in the past decades to build a closer community of common destiny.

TIES UPGRADED TO ALL-WEATHER STRATEGIC COOPERATIVE PARTNERSHIP

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in April, the two neighbors decided to lift their ties to an all- weather strategic cooperative partnership and signed over 50 cooperation deals covering transport infrastructure, energy, agriculture, trade, finance, health, local affairs, media, ocean sciences and education.

The trip to the South Asian country, the first leg of Xi's first overseas tour this year, highlighted the importance of the China-Pakistan relationship and marked a significant stroke of Beijing's neighborhood diplomacy.

Since the establishment of their diplomatic relations 64 years ago, China and Pakistan have forged an ironclad friendship. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif described the bilateral friendship as "higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, sweeter than honey, and stronger than steel."

A survey, jointly conducted by Xinhua, Pakistani online magazine Youlin and China's Tencent News, showed that 90 percent of netizens from both countries chose the catch phrase "iron friends" to depict the China-Pakistan relationship.

Thanks to Xi's latest visit, the two "iron friends" have begun upgrading their close relationship to an ever closer community of common destiny.

The community of common destiny, proposed by Xi, underlines that all nations inhabiting the planet should raise awareness about the humanity sharing a community of common destiny, pull together in times of trouble, and strive for common development and lasting peace of the entire world.

Hailing the idea of building China-Pakistan community of shared destiny, Pakistani experts said it will benefit not only the peoples of both countries but also those of the whole region.

"The community of common destiny is a promise to ensure a peaceful and stable neighboring environment that is very vital of relations between Pakistan and China, and between China and other nations," Saleem Khilji, director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said.

He also expressed the belief that under the idea of the community of shared destiny, both China and Pakistan will further consolidate their relations and boost their cooperation in "all fields of life."

FRIENDSHIP BASED ON SINCERITY, MUTUAL SUPPORT IN NEED

The Chinese people have always regarded the Pakistanis as very reliable friends, and Pakistan has supported China on many issues concerning China's core interests and spared no efforts in helping the Chinese people and government when natural disasters occurred.

When China's southwest Sichuan province was hit by a powerful 8. 0-magnitude earthquake in May 2008, Pakistan immediately donated all of its tents in reserve to the quake-hit area.

Pakistan also lent China valuable help when the then newly- established republic sought to break through the blockade imposed by the West and when China tried to reinstate its lawful seat in the UN Security Council.

China, in return, has always been a staunch supporter of Pakistan's independence, territorial integrity and national dignity, and has provided selfless assistance for the South Asian country's socioeconomic development.

In 2010, when massive floods devastated one-fifth of Pakistan's territory, China was the first country to help Pakistan with cash, food, medicines, tents and also by sending medical and rescue teams.

"China and Pakistan have always trusted, understood and supported each other, and are all-weather friends," Xi said when meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif, recalling that the two countries helped evacuate each other's nationals from war-torn Yemen in early April.

China helped ferry 176 Pakistani nationals home from Yemen, which was applauded by the Pakistani government and its people. The South Asian country also helped eight Chinese students leave Yemen.

According to senior research fellow Khilji, Pakistan is now facing a number of knotty problems such as economic crises, weak infrastructure, unemployment, energy shortage and terrorism.

At the difficult time, China came to help "because China wants to share its destiny with Pakistan in any condition," he said.

"Carrying a unique relationship, China and Pakistan have seen some worst times together but they always stood by each other and considered the tests as their shared destiny."

"1+4" COOPERATION STRUCTURE WITHIN FRAMEWORK OF "BELT AND ROAD"

High on the agenda of Xi's visit to Pakistan is advancing the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking southwest Pakistan's deepwater Gwadar Port with northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The CPEC is located in where the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road meet.

The "Belt and Road" initiative, proposed by Xi in 2013, is aimed at reviving the ancient trade routes that span Asia, Africa and Europe.

"We need to form a '1+4' cooperation structure with the CPEC at the center and the Gwadar Port, transport infrastructure, energy and industrial cooperation being the four key areas to achieve a win-win result and common development," Xi told Prime Minister Sharif.

The two countries should make steady progress in developing the Gwadar Port and building the CPEC, so as to bring benefits to the people and set an example for other major projects on regional interconnectivity, he said.

As economic exchanges between China and Pakistan are growing, they have set a target of lifting bilateral trade to 20 billion U. S. dollars in three years, up from the current 16 billion dollars.

The Karot hydropower project on the Jhelum river in northeastern Pakistan became the first recipient of funding support from China's 40-billion-dollar Silk Road Fund.

"The CPEC is of high significant importance in the Belt and Road project because it connects both belt and road. The completion of the CPEC will be the landmark of China's Belt and Road grand project and it will set an example that will motivate other partner nations to quickly join and execute the plans," said Khalid Mahmood, president of Islamabad Council of World Affairs.

Moreover, the spillover effect from China-Pakistan cooperation is not confined to the economic arena.

A school massacre last December in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, which left 145 people dead, including 132 schoolchildren, again highlighted Pakistan's role and urgency in the war against terror.

The two neighbors also pledged to make concerted efforts to resolutely crack down on the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, a UN-listed terror group, in northwest China's Xinjiang.

"Anti-terrorism cooperation is very important component of our relationship ... because elimination of terrorism means promotion of stability and security, and if there will be stability and security the atmosphere will be more conducive for China-Pakistan relations," said Senator Mushahid Hussain, chairman of the Pakistan Parliament's Defense Committee. Endi