China's new Foreign Minister Qin Gang in the first phone call with his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Beijing is concerned about the safety of its workers based in Pakistan and urged him to take "strong" security measures to protect them.
Qin, who recently succeeded Wang Yi, had a phone call at the request of Bilawal on January 9, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement here said on Tuesday.
Besides customary references to special ties between the two all-weather allies and China's wish to improve the relations further, Qin "stressed that with the Chinese New Year just days away, the Chinese side is highly concerned about the safety of Chinese citizens in Pakistan and hopes that the Pakistani side will continue to take strong security measures".
Bilawal assured Qin that "the Pakistani side will spare no efforts to protect the safety of the Chinese personnel, institutions, and projects in Pakistan,” the statement said.
The security of hundreds of Chinese personnel working on various projects of the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a subject of concern for Beijing in recent years.
The CPEC aims to connect Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province. India has objected to the CPEC as it traverses through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.