ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif, who is on an official visit to China, met his counterpart Gen Qi Jianguo at the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Sunday. According to Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, the army chief was given a guard of honour at the PLA Headquarters.

Gen Sharif held extensive talks with General Qi during which views were exchanged on full range of regional security and defence-related issues.

They agreed to enhance long-term defence collaboration and strengthen security and counter-terrorism cooperation and intelligence sharing and training exchanges.

Earlier, the army chief called on Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Gen Fan Changlong.

According to ISPR, Gen Fan described Pakistan and China as strategic cooperation partners and most important neighbours and “iron brothers”.

Expressing solidarity with the people and the armed forces of Pakistan, Gen Fan praised the success of the Zarb-i-Azb operation which he termed “decisive, bold and a hard blow for terrorists”.

Gen Fan also praised the national consensus on the issue of fight against terrorism and Pakistan’s resolve, efforts and sacrifices in curing the menace. He assured China’s full support for Pakistan in this regard.

Gen Sharif said that with the nation’s support, the army was determined to go to any extent to eradicate the scourge of terrorism from the country.

Published in Dawn January 26th , 2015

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