Pak-China ties, CPEC: Hina as new SM Foreign Affairs a shot in the arm
ISLAMABAD,Apr.20(Gwadar Pro) - Sino-Pak relations and CPEC are going to flourish with new fervency on the heel of the auspicious entry of Hina Rabbani Khar as State Minister for Foreign Affairs in the newly elected government of Pakistan in the wake of her constant astute understanding to elevate all-weather strategic partnership between both brethren countries and robust voice to reap the leverages of CPEC in the prism of rationality given the emerging geopolitical and geo-economic scenarios in the volatile global world.
During her past stint as Pakistani Foreign Minister, she visited China and played her anchoring role in enriching the China-Pakistan bosom friendship on solid grounds. On August 25, 2011, she called on then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on her first visit to China. Then Premier Wen welcomed Pakistan's Foreign Minister to China and said that the Foreign Minister's decision to make her first official visit to China reflected her commitment to further strengthening the friendship between the two countries. She said the Pakistan-China relationship was without parallel in the world of inter-state relations. "The two countries enjoyed complete convergence of interest on all bilateral issues as well as international issues of mutual importance," she added. She also thanked China for its invaluable assistance in helping Pakistan achieve its economic and development goals.
On 11 July 2012, then Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with her on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Being then Pakistani Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar said that Pakistan-China relations are of great strategic significance. Pakistan attaches great importance to Pakistan-China cooperative partnership. "It is committed to making Pakistan-China relations an example of friendship and cooperation between two countries. China and Pakistan have frequent high-level mutual visits, productive cooperation, and deepening people-to-people friendships. Pakistan wants to work with China and enhance Pakistan-China all-dimensional cooperation," she mentioned.
Belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party (one of the main allied parties of the coalition government), Hina Rabbani Khar has previously served as Foreign Minister from February 2011 to March 2013 – the youngest person and the first woman to hold this office in the country. Earlier, she has also served as the State Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs.
Khar came to prominence during the Shaukat Aziz government and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Affairs and Statistics in 2003, and being named Minister of State for Economic Affairs the following year, a post she retained until 2007.
After her 2008 re-election, she was appointed Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs. She worked on the financial budget and economic policies in the absence of the then Finance Minister and on 13 June 2009 she successfully presented the 2010 federal budget in the Parliament and has the distinction of being the first woman politician to present the Pakistani budget in the National Assembly.
