BEIJING: I have been to Pakistan as an officer of Chinese Embassy in Pakistan for three times. I have been eating Pakistan’s food and drinking Pakistan™s water for 11 years. I think I am a practitioner, a participant and a witness for China-Pakistan relationship and friendship, said Yao Jing, former Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Over the past 20 years, he has experienced rapid development of China-Pakistan relations. The economic and trade exchanges between the two countries have gradually expanded. Personnel exchanges have been continuously deepened. The joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative has been intensified and the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has achieved remarkable results.
Moreover, China-Pakistan community of common destiny will become closer in the new era. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Yao Jing was interviewed by China Economic Net.
He disclosed his many years of memory, counting the past and looking forward to the future. His original aspirations for China-Pakistan friendship remain unchanged.
Talking about Pakistan’s support to China in time of need, Yao said, in 1994, as an attache to the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, 25-year-old he took an international flight from Beijing to Islamabad.
At that time, I just started my diplomatic career and it was my first trip abroad, I felt particularly impressed that before I arrived in Pakistan, I could feel the special feelings of Pakistani people towards China. The flight attendant of Pakistan Airlines introduced the customs of the two countries all the way on the flight.
When it passed over the main peak of the Kunlun Mountains, the flight attendant proudly said:This is K2! It is the border between China and Pakistan. Yao had a very good impression on his first trip to Pakistan.They are familiar with China’s famous places even the mountains and rivers, and I can deeply feel the Pakistanis’ understanding of China and their friendship with China.
During the first 5 years in Pakistan, Yao has close ties with local people. As long as the Chinese face difficulties in Pakistan, the local people will step forward to give a hand, as if it were their own issue.
From 2007 to 2010, Yao embarked on his second trip to Pakistan. As the Chinese Political Counselor in Pakistan during this period, his work has changed and the relationship between the two countries has also taken a step forward. –Agencies
