KARACHI: China’s foreign ministry has said that Pakistan keeps its strategic ally aware of its cooperation with the United States in the mining sector and the two countries have maintained a “high-level strategic mutual trust and close communication”.
“The two countries have maintained high-level strategic mutual trust and close communication on major issues concerning each other’s common interests. From what I’ve learned, the two countries have been in communication on Pakistan-US mining cooperation,” said spokesperson Lin Jian.
Lin Jian, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was asked about the mineral shipment to the US and its alleged link to China’s curbs.
Pakistan, US sign $500mn MoU to boost cooperation in critical minerals
He stated that Islamabad and Beijing have been in communication regarding the mining activities and “Pakistan stressed that its interactions with the US will never harm China’s interests or its cooperation with China”.
Furthermore, in an apparent reference to a photograph circulating on social media that showed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir displaying an open case containing minerals samples to US President Donald Trump, the spokesperson said: “The samples that the Pakistani leaders showed and gave to the US leader are gem ores purchased by staff in Pakistan. The reported stories that you mentioned are either misinformed or invented, or even designed to drive a wedge between China and Pakistan. They are just baseless.”
The spokesperson said China’s recently released export control measures on related rare earth items “have nothing to do with Pakistan”.
“It is a legitimate action by the Chinese government to refine its export control system in accordance with laws and regulations. It aims to better defend world peace and regional stability and to fulfill non-proliferation and other international obligations,” he added.
He reiterated that China and Pakistan were “all-weather strategic cooperative partners” whose iron-clad friendship “has stood the test of time’’.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.