ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday said that his upcoming visit to China will provide an opportunity to underscore the importance of the all weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

He was talking to minister of International Development of the Communist Party of China, Song Tao, who called on him at the Prime Minister’s Office, a press release said.

Official sources told The Nation that the prime minister also plans to take China into confidence before the IMF finalises a bailout deal with Islamabad in the coming weeks.

An IMF team is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on November 7 to negotiate the programme, likely to cover a period of 3 years.

The Institute of International Finance in its latest report said it expects an agreement on a 3-year IMF programme of $15 billion by end of this year.

Imran Khan will visit China early next month to hold meetings with the Chinese leadership – including President Xi Jinping. He will discuss the bilateral ties in addition to Pakistan’s economic crises.

Chinese foreign ministry said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will arrive in Chinese commercial and industrial hub Shanghai to attend opening of China International Import Expo on November 5.

He would pay a weeklong official visit to China from November 3 on invitation of the Chinese government. The Chinese government has granted the status of ‘Guest of Honour’ to Pakistan at the CIIE to be held till November 10.

In meeting with the Chinese minister in Islamabad, the prime minister told him that he looked forward to meeting the Chinese leadership during his visit to China.

He said the “all weather friendship” between Pakistan and China held particular significance for the people of Pakistan.

The PM said Pakistan would like to learn from Chinese experience in poverty alleviation, fighting corruption and agriculture development through sharing expertise, technology and best practices in the sector.

The China International Import Expo would provide an opportunity to the two sides to look into export possibilities from Pakistan to China, he added.

The prime minister said President Xi Jinping was a great statesman for whom there was much admiration in the people of Pakistan. He said President Xi’s terming of China-Pakistan friendship as “iron brothers” reflected an undeniable reality.

Appreciating the growing relations between PTI and Communist Party of China (CPC), the prime minister emphasised on further enhancing these ties through exchange of delegations and sharing of ideas.

Minister Song Tao underscored the importance attached by the leadership and people of China to Pakistan-China relations.

He assured China’s support to Pakistan at all regional international fora, as well as in addressing the agenda of poverty alleviation, fighting corruption and agricultural development.

He added that exchanges between political parties would help in sharing ideas to achieve common and shared development.

He termed CPEC a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative, which would make significant contributions towards building a new Pakistan.

More on PM’s visit

A senior government official told The Nation that the premier, during his China visit, would exchange views with the Chinese leadership about the IMF bailout package, CPEC and other bilateral ties.

“The aim is to take China into confidence over IMF package and the United States’ assertions that the IMF loans should not be used to settle the Chinese debts,” said the official.

Another official said that Pakistan and China’s trust level was always high and Beijing would ‘understand’ Islamabad’s position on IMF and the CPEC misunderstanding.

Yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that as a member of the IMF, China supported the organisation in making an objective evaluation of Pakistan based on professionalism and earnestly helping it to properly address the current difficulty.

“The relevant measures should not affect the normal bilateral cooperation between China and Pakistan,” he said.

Asked if Pakistan’s request for IMF bailout package had something to do with the debt incurred by the CPEC, he said, “I would like to clearly point out that the Chinese side is willing to join hands with Pakistan to continuously enrich and expand the CPEC building and help the Pakistani side enhance its capacity for self-driven development.”

He added, “Recently there are many discussions over Pakistan’s debt issue and the financial difficulty it incurred.

“If we take a look at the country’s debt structure as released by Pakistani government, the debt incurred by CPEC only constitutes a very small proportion of Pakistan’s debt composition and it is surely not to blame for the current financial difficulties of Pakistan.

“Officials of relevant department in the Pakistani government have already made this point very clear in recent remarks.”

Over the weekend, Finance Minister Asad Umar said that Islamabad was ready to share details of the debt related to the CPEC with the IMF as he formally sought a bailout package from the international lender.

Pakistan is also set to discuss the Chinese debt details with the United States before briefing the IMF about the Beijing loans.

Washington has not so far given any positive signals since Pakistan approached the IMF for the bailout package this month.

The US is the largest contributor to the IMF and has 17.68 percent of voting rights in major decisions. China is third, behind Japan, and controls 6.49 percent of the vote.

Washington had earlier said that it will examine Pakistan’s request for an IMF loan, adding that ‘part of the reason that Pakistan found itself in this situation is Chinese debt’.

In July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had indicated that the US will review the IMF bailout package in view of the massive Chinese debt on Pakistan.

“Make no mistake. We will be watching what the IMF does. There is no rationale for IMF tax dollars, and associated with that American dollars, that are part of the IMF funding, for those to go to bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself,” Pompeo said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khalid said that a pavilion of Pakistani companies exporting various items to China would be set up at the CIIE expo.

“This will help in enhancing Pakistan’s export to China and to improve balance of trade position between the two countries,” he said.

PM Khan will fly to Beijing first where he will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang and other senior civil military leaders before leaving for Shanghai.

Meanwhile, a Chinese delegation of Communist party of China called on Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari here yesterday. The delegation comprised of Song Tao, minister of International department, Sun Haiyan, Ma Xuesong, Zheng Junlv, Qi Wei, Hu Xiaodong, Yao Jing, Mei Jing and Chen Yongpei.

On this occasion, Senator Sherry Rehman, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Senator Farhatullah Babar and Faisal Karim Kundi were also present. “Matters of mutual interest were disused,” said a PPP statement.