Friendship with China has
always been the corner-stone of Pakistan’s foreign policy and this shows itself
in a tradition, where upon holding the office of the head of government, each
new prime minister makes his first official foreign visit to China. Likewise
Nawaz Sharif too marked his presence in the international community by first
taking an official trip to China on the 23rd of May after assuming charge.
Following it was another high level visit to China by the President of Pakistan,
Mamnoon Hussain in February of 2014. As friends, whose friendship “runs deeper
than oceans”, the Pakistani government has always stressed on their all
weathering friendship and giving their due rights as friends, neighbors and
brothers.
What has changed, however, is the dialogue between the two countries. It comes
as no surprise that Nawaz Sharifs government is bent, as has always been, on
economic progress. Hence the dialogue between China and Pakistan has extended
from military cooperation to now establishing grand economic projects such as
the Pak-China Economic Corridor. Both sides have realized that there needs to be
a shift in discourse from being military concentrated to a more economic
orientation. To this end, the two sides will strengthen cooperation in trade,
investment, energy, agriculture, finance and other fields. Particularly, the
Nawaz government, in making their presence quite physically known, have been
engaged in an elaborate system of transportation and communication, all with the
help of their neighbors, China.To power their ambitious economic projects, Nawaz
Sharif requests for energy and not aid. Such cooperation and mutual dependency
can be seen as something positive and a shift from Pakistan’s heavy reliance on
its relationship with America and subsequent aid that follows a series of
strings attached. Pakistan relation with China has always been seen as bilateral
and that of mutually benefits.
As a reflection of their high-level strategic cooperation, Pakistan and China
had agreed on cooperation in aviation and aerospace. They have committed to
earnestly implement the 2012-2020 Space Cooperation Outline between China
National Space Administration and Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research
Commission to further enhance bilateral exchanges and cooperation in this field.
In addition to space endeavors, the two sides have agreed to take necessary
measures to actively expand air routes for passenger travel and cargo
transportation between the two countries, as well as an increase in the number
of flights.
No doubt, with the advent of the Nawaz government, China has been making
headlines a lot more frequently than before. Nawaz’s business outlook coupled
with China’s dynamic role in the economic realm has the potential to flip
Pakistan’s dismal economic situation to a prosperous and emerging economy. Past
experience demonstrates the PML-N’s commitment to see through the implementation
of economic goals to be a lot stronger than any government. When it comes down
to it, Nawaz has been able to successfully secure economic deals with various
countries.