Pakistan PM Imran Khan to attend opening ceremony of Beijing Winter Olympics

Pakistan on Friday announced that Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics next week, reinforcing the "all-weather strategic cooperative partnership" between the two countries.

During the visit, Khan will have meetings with the Chinese leadership, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said at the weekly briefing.

"The visit will reinforce the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between our two countries, and further advance the objective of building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era," he said.

The foreign office on January 13 had said that Khan will be embarking on a three-day visit to Beijing from February 3 on the invitation of the Chinese leadership.

The Beijing Winter Olympics will be held from February 4 to 20, followed by the Paralympics Winter Games from March 4-13, amid a diplomatic boycott by several Western countries, including the US and the UK.

A host of world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are due to attend the opening ceremony to show solidarity with Beijing.

During the weekly briefing, Ahmad also sought to dispel the impression of any slowdown in projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by saying that both Beijing and Islamabad are strongly committed to take the infrastructure project forward and make it successful.

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The $60 billion CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of China's ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.

The BRI is seen as an attempt by China to further its influence abroad with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.

• Pakistan