ugc_banner

Pakistan PM Imran Khan to visit China, will attend Belt and Road forum

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Apr 24, 2019, 09:38 PM IST
main img
File photo: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Photograph:(ANI)

Story highlights

Imran Khan will pay a four-day visit to Beijing and will be accompanied by a high-level ministerial delegation.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is all set to embark for his second visit to China from Thursday.

The visit comes in the wake of the second edition of the Belt and Road forum and will have leaders from 37 countries.

Imran Khan will pay a four-day visit to Beijing and will be accompanied by a high-level ministerial delegation.

This will be Khan’s second visit to China since coming to power in August 2018.

China has pledged about $60 billion in infrastructure loans for Pakistan, touted as a success story of its Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to build road and maritime trading routes across the globe.

Through the project, China aims to expand its influence worldwide with the help of a chain of infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments. 

India and Bhutan will be among a handful of countries to skip Xi Jinping's mega event.

India opposes the Belt and Road Initiative because its offshoot, the 60-billion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor, passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, which is an integral part of the Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides delivering the keynote address to the forum, Imran Khan will also meet with the Chinese leadership.

He is also scheduled to hold talks with other heads of state or government on the margins of the forum.

Sources privy to the development say that China is likely to give an exemption to three-hundred-and-13 products of import from Pakistan.

Islamabad aims to sign a free trade agreement with China.

Pakistan’s crippling economy has been a worry for the Imran Khan government since he has taken charge. Friendly countries, including China, came to Islamabad’s rescue in a bid to pull the country out of a Balance-of-payments crisis.