Reuters/Beijing

Pakistan will help China with its fight against extremists Beijing says are active in its unruly far western region of Xinjiang, the country’s prime minister said yesterday during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China blames the East Turkestan Islamic Movement for carrying out attacks in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people, though many foreign experts doubt the group’s existence in a cohesive group.
China, Pakistan’s only major ally in the region, has long urged Islamabad to weed out what it says are militants from Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home to a lethal mix of militant groups, including the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Hundreds have died in unrest in Xinjiang in the last two years or so. Exiles and activists say Chinese controls on the religion and culture of the Uighur people is more a cause of the violence than well-organised militant groups.
Pakistan Prime Minister Mohamed Nawaz Sharif told Xi that his country would “continue to resolutely fight the East Turkestan Islamic Movement terrorist forces”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement following the meeting in Beijing.
Pakistan will increase its co-ordination with China on Afghanistan too, so as to “jointly maintain regional peace and stability”, Sharif said.
Pakistan will also do all it can to guarantee the safety of Chinese companies and workers in the country, he added, who have in the past been attacked by militants.
China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather friends” and their close ties have been underpinned by long-standing wariness of their common neighbour, India, and a desire to hedge against US influence across the region.
China’s foreign ministry said the two countries had signed more than 20 agreements on Sharif’s trip, including on nuclear power and on the deepwater port of Gwadar, which China is developing. It provided no details.
An official said China has promised Pakistan investment worth $42bn, an official said.
Pakistan suffers from chronic electricity shortages and Islamabad has long sought investment in coal-fired power stations which it sees as a solution to the problem.
The new agreements pave the way for Chinese state-owned companies to help build at least four new power stations in Pakistan, while the deals also cover the supply and mining of coal, the prime minister’s press office said.
“The deals being signed between China and Pakistan are worth $42bn. The whole investment is being made by China,” said Amir Zamir, spokesman for Pakistan’s ministry of planning and development.
“There is no loan or aid for the energy projects, but pure investment by the Chinese,” he said.
The agreements signed between the two countries include solar power production at Quaid-e Azam Solar Park, easy loan for laying optic fibre between the two countries, mining of 65,00,000 metric tonnes of coal in Thar Block-2, 870 MW Sukhi Kinari hydropower project, 1320 MW Sahiwal power project and MoU for 100 MW Jhimpir wind power project.