Premier of the State Council of China Li Qiang is scheduled to undertake a four-day bilateral visit to Pakistan from October 14 to 17 to meet the country’s civil and military leadership and attend the Meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Premier Li will be accompanied by ministers and senior officials including from the ministries of foreign affairs and commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the China International Development Cooperation Agency, according to a curtain raiser issued by the Foreign Office on Sunday.

This will be the first visit by any Chinese prime minister to Pakistan in 11 years. Li Keqiang was the last Chinese premier to visit the neighbouring country in May 2013. It was a less than two weeks visit where he said that the two countries should make cooperation on power generation a priority.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Premier Li Qiang will lead their respective delegations to comprehensively discuss all aspects of Pakistan-China relations including economic and trade ties and cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The two sides will also discuss regional and global developments.

The Chinese premier will call on President Asif Ali Zardari and hold meetings with parliamentary leaders and senior military leadership of Pakistan. He will also attend the Meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization being held in Islamabad on October 15 to 16.

“Premier Li’s visit to Islamabad is an expression of the importance attached by Pakistan and China to their ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’. It will be an occasion for the two sides to reaffirm mutual support on issues of core interest; advance the high-quality development of CPEC; and reinforce regular exchanges on important regional and global developments,” the FO said.

In June, PM Shehbaz visited China where he also met Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders reaffirmed their consensus on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s high-quality development and the timely completion of major ongoing projects.

They also affirmed their consensus on CPEC’s upgradation and advancing the mega project’s development in its second phase.