Islamabad (PTI): Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan will visit Pakistan next week to hold talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan and other top leaders on a host of bilateral issues including the smooth development of the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).Wang’s visit from May 26 to 28 is in continuation of high-level exchanges between the two countries, which have acquired an increased momentum since Prime Minister Khan’s visit to China in November 2018 and his participation in the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in Beijing in April, according to Pakistan Foreign Office.

During the visit, Vice President Wang would call on President Arif Alvi and have a separate meeting with Prime Minister Khan.

The FO said Pakistan and China will sign MoUs/agreements and inaugurate projects to enhance bilateral cooperation in a broad range of areas.

It said the visit of the vice president underscores the “vitality of the time-tested and all-weather relationship” between Pakistan and China.

The FO said it would reinforce the strength of bilateral ties and impart further impetus to the “growing, multi-faceted” cooperation between the two countries in diverse fields.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang during a media briefing said Wang will hold talks with Pakistan leaders on a host of issues including the development of the CPEC.

China and Pakistan are all weather strategic cooperative partners. We are iron friends. We firmly support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests. And Pakistan has been the priority in China’s diplomacy. Now there is sound momentum made in our cooperation and frequent high level exchanges,” he said.

The two countries are deepening their mutually beneficial cooperation and conducting close coordination in international and regional forums, he said and referred to Prime Minister Khan’s visit to Beijing recently to take part in the second BRF.

“We believe Wang’s visit will further deepen our high-level exchanges, friendship and mutual trust and advance our CPEC development and cooperation across the board and inject new impetus in closer community of shared future in the new era for our two countries,” he said.

India has been boycotting the BRI to protest over the CPEC being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of BRI.

After visiting Pakistan, the Chinese leader will also visit Germany and Netherlands.

Wang, 70, is a member of the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) powerful Politburo Standing Committee. He is also a member of China’s Parliament, National People’s Congress and the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, a key foreign affairs body of the CPC.