ISLAMABAD: Chinese Ambassador in Islamabad Jiang Zaidong Thursday expressed his country’s appreciation of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts for lasting peace in the region. The ambassador called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the PM House here.
The Middle East situation and Pakistan’s peace efforts also came under discussion, a statement issued by the PM Office media said.
Shehbaz expressed his resolve to continue working closely with the Chinese leadership to further strengthen the bilateral relations. He expressed satisfaction over the positive trajectory of Pakistan-China bilateral relations and reaffirmed that Pakistan took great pride in its all-weather cooperative strategic partnership with China.
Jiang Zaidong reaffirmed China’s commitment to strengthening its iron-clad ties with Pakistan and to take them to new heights, as envisioned by President Xi Jinping.
The prime minister was assisted by Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Dr. Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, SAPM Syed Tariq Fatemi and Foreign Secretary Ambassador Amna Baloch.
Meanwhile, Pakistani astronauts Khurram Dawood and Muhammad Zeeshan Ali, who are going on a space mission, called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Shehbaz praised the astronauts for their dedication, calling their mission a significant milestone for Pakistan and a matter of national pride. He expressed confidence that they will write a new chapter in Pakistan’s history. He highlighted that China-assisted mission will add new dimensions to the relations between the two countries.
The astronauts described the opportunity to conduct research in space for Pakistan as a unique honour and source of pride and vowed to work diligently to meet the nation’s expectations.
Addressing a meeting on energy security, Shehbaz termed energy security as a crucial part of the country’s overall future planning, Sabah reports. He said energy conservation and timely measures in the current regional situation prevented the emergence of an energy crisis.
Shehbaz said work was underway on a plan to maintain strategic crude oil reserves in the country in view of future energy needs. He emphasized that for energy conservation and sustainable development, means of transportation should be gradually shifted to environment-friendly electric vehicles. In future only electric buses and motorcycles should be purchased for official use. The prime minister said steps should be taken more rapidly to establish EV charging stations.
He said a strategy should be developed to facilitate the acquisition of batteries for storing excess electricity generated from solar energy. He said local production of high quality storage batteries should be encouraged. The meeting was informed that the country currently had ample petroleum reserves and that the food security situation was stable. The meeting was informed that local production of gas and oil was increasing due to the continuous efforts of oil and gas companies. The meeting was informed that a PC-I was being prepared for two pilot projects for grid level battery storage. The meeting was also informed that households generating solar energy were being encouraged to install battery storage.
