Beijing, April 28
China and Pakistan firmed up their cooperation under the USD 60 billion CPEC by signing a host of agreements on Sunday, including upgradation of a Karachi-Peshawar railway line, launching of second phase of the Free Trade Agreement and establishment of a dry port.
The agreements were stated to be part of the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who came here to attend China’s second Belt and Road Forum (BRF) on April 25 met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday during which they signed an agreement to build a double railway track from Karachi and Peshawar, Pakistan’s state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
The railway agreement is titled “Declaration for Completion of Preliminary Design of Phase-I for Upgradation of ML-1”.
The BRF was held here from April 26-27 to highlight China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in which the CPEC, connecting China’s Xinjiang with Pakistan’s Gwadar port and covering about 3,000 kilometres, is a flagship project.
