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UPDATED: July 5, 2013 Web Exclusive
The Speedy Corridor
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Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Beijing on July 4 (XINHUA)

Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif began his maiden trip to China on July 3. How would the two neighbors seek to renew their friendship following the reshuffling of both countries' governments? Sharif shared his thoughts on strengthening bilateral relations and furthering cooperation on the economy and security with Beijing Review special correspondent Zhou Jinglu in Islamabad before heading to China. Excerpts:

Beijing Review: Do you think the political mutual trust between China and Pakistan is reaching a new level?

Nawaz Sharif: The Pakistani-Sino relationship is handed down from one generation to another. Since we have an excellent relationship, whoever comes and goes in the government doesn't make any difference. The relationship and friendship between our countries keep moving on and strengthening.

We were very happy to welcome Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Pakistan in May. I was not even in office at that time, but we had a very good meeting and discussed a number of issues that we wanted to collaborate on with each other.

Pakistan and China have done a lot of projects together. We have an excellent partnership in the fields of business, industry and investment. You will see much more coming up in the next few years.

What measures will your government take to deepen the all-weather friendship and all-round strategic cooperation with China, particularly in the economic area?

The most important of all is the Pakistan-China economic corridor, which is a project that will change the fate of the region. Now the management of Gwadar has been handed over to China. We expect that Gwadar is going to become a very important economic hub or a very important port in the Arabian Sea. Of course, this is also beneficial to China.

The economic corridor taking off from Kashgar to Gwadar is a game changer as far as this region is concerned. This is the subject that we discussed together with Premier Li in May. There is an agreement on undertaking a joint project, and I have sent a team headed by Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning and Development. They went to Beijing at the end of June and had a wonderful session with their Chinese counterparts. Both sides are very interested in moving ahead with this project.

We want to cooperate with each other in a variety of fields, such as energy and infrastructure. I have met with representatives from one or two Chinese companies in Islamabad. We want to work together to set up a coal-based project to produce electricity, and a solar-based project to produce energy. China is quite keen to supply these projects to Pakistan.

At the same time, in the field of infrastructure, we would like to build motorways in Pakistan. I am quite happy to hear that Chinese companies are willing to do that for Pakistan. We have been talking about high-speed trains and we will be discussing this issue as well in China.

If all these things materialize, the trade volume of the bilateral economic cooperation will perhaps total over hundreds of billions of dollars. Now is the time for both sides to move forward at a fast speed, so we can seize the potential which exists between the two countries.

If you look at the past, we had relationships almost in every field. We are very proud of this joint venture and joint partnership of collaboration in these two different spheres.

Also, there is a great potential for Pakistan and China to extend the cooperation and collaboration into Central Asian countries and countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. About 3 billion people could benefit from such cooperation.

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