Yang Jiechi, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party, will arrive in Islamabad today with a delegation for a two-day visit to Pakistan, according to a spokesperson for the Foreign Office on Wednesday.
Yang Jiechi, according to the FO, is the Director of the Central Commission on Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and a member of the Politburo of the CPC’s Central Committee.
The Chinese official will meet with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during his visit on June 29 and 30.
Yang will not be the only member of China’s delegation; there will also be vice ministers of foreign affairs and trade, a vice-chairman of the CIDCA, and deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The FO stated that Yang “has a key role in China’s foreign affairs” and that he previously held the positions of state councilor from 2013 to 2017 and foreign minister from 2007 to 2013.
“The visit is a part of Pakistan and China’s ongoing high-level interactions. Recent examples of these exchanges include the Foreign Ministers’ virtual meeting on May 11, 2022, the Prime Minister’s phone call to Premier Li on May 16, 2022, and the Foreign Minister’s trip to China on May 21 and 22, 2022, according to a FO spokeswoman.
The spokesperson stated that the importance both nations place on further deepening the “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership,” reaffirming mutual support on matters of each other’s core interests, enhancing economic engagement, and exploring new avenues of bilateral cooperation for the benefit of the two people, advancing high-quality development of CPEC, and coordinating positions on significant regional and global issues is reflected in the director Yang’s visit.
