Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in Beijing on Wednesday, where the talks centred around Islamabad’s economic crisis and the need to boost projects under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, according to the state media.
This is Sharif’s first official visit to China after taking charge earlier this year, and so is the case of Xi after recently concluding its twice-a-decade party congress where he was elected unopposed for third-term.
India has taken umbrage at the invitation extended by Pakistan and China, allowing third countries to join and invest in the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects a pet project of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
"We have seen reports on encouraging proposed participation of third countries in so-called CPEC projects. Any such actions by any party directly infringe on India's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.
Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has clarified that the Padma Bridge multipurpose road-rail bridge across the Padma River, the main distributary of the Ganges is not part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), putting rest to speculations on Beijing’s presence in the Indian neighbourhood.
In the wake of a spate of attacks against the Chinese nationals living in Pakistan, officials in the capital Islamabad city have asked the foreign nationals to inform the police prior to their movement to ensure their safety, local media reports.
According to Dawn newspaper, this decision was taken during a meeting held to review the performance of the recently-established District Foreign Security Cell by Islamabad Police for the security of foreigners, especially Chinese nationals.
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Pakistan was rocked by a suicide bombing that killed four outside Karachi University. Three Chinese tutors and their Pakistani driver died in a targeted suicide bombing at varsity’s Confucius Institute on Tuesday afternoon.