The official handout released by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) after PM Imran Khan met Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing was full of customary good-will greetings and exchange of pleasantries, as per norm, so it’s too soon to tell what really become of some of the more contentious issues that were also up for discussion. But the meeting did put to rest rumours that the Chinese president would not meet the Pakistani PM during the visit because of some unhappiness with the pace of CPEC, the security situation, etc. But Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary should still be more careful as he tries to play up the PM’s activities in his tweets, because when he said that PM Khan would be the first head of state to meet the Chinese president in more than two years, President Jinping had already sat down with his Russian counterpart.
Considering the international situation, though, it was far more significant for the PM to offer “Pakistan’s full support to China on all issues of its core interest”. Since he also lamented the “growing polarisaiton in the world”, surely he understands the nature of the conflict building between Beijing and Washington, with the latter leading a western boycott of China’s winter Olympics. Getting close to one means greater distance with the other, so the PM’s words also imply that Islamabad has clearly decided which camp to choose as things heat up. It was also no coincidence that Russian President made sure to attend despite the threat of war with Ukraine, and subsequent backlash from Nato, because China and Russia are bracing themselves for a fresh confrontation with the US and EU.
