beijing on his maiden visit to beijing pakistan prime minister shehbaz sharif held talks with chinese president xi jinping during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen the allweather friendship and the usd 60 billion chinapakistan economic corridor cpecshehbaz arrived in beijing on tuesday night on a twoday visit this is his first visit to china since assuming office in april this year however this is shebazs second meeting with xi after becoming the prime minister he met xi last month on the sidelines of the shanghai cooperation organisation sco summit at samarkand in uzbekistanin his samarkand meeting with shehbaz xi had called for providing solid protection for hundreds of chinese working on the cpec projectsshehbaz and xi on tuesday met at the peoples great hall of china and discussed broadbased cooperation in economy and investment besides exchanging views on regional and global developments pakistans staterun app news agency reported on wednesdaythe two leaders agreed to strengthen multilateral cooperation in diverse areas including cpec and strategic partnership it saidboth shehbaz and xi have expressed the desire to further promote the allweather strategic cooperation partnership between their countries the report saidshehbaz was the first head of state to felicitate the chinese leader who was recently reelected as general secretary of the ruling communist party of china cpc for an unprecedented third term perhaps for life a privilege accorded only to party founder mao zedongshehbaz will also meet premier li keqiang and li zhanshu the chairman of chinas parliament the national peoples congress npc to discuss the allweather tiesduring his visit a number of agreements are expected to be signed officials saidduring his talks with the chinese leaders shehbaz is expected to make a case for beijing to provide more help for his government to shore up the balance of payments position to avert a crisis similar to sri lankaaccording to the international monetary fund imf pakistans total nonparis club bilateral debt currently stands at about usd 27 billion of which chinese debt is about usd 23 billionshehbazs visit is taking place amid a political impasse in his country as former prime minister imran khan queered the pitch to press for elections with long march and the deepening economic crisisahead of shehbazs visit pakistans foreign office said that the trip is also expected to advance the wideranging bilateral cooperation agenda with the conclusion of a number of mousagreements in diverse areas and consolidate the momentum of cpec cooperation in the wake of the 11th meeting of the cpec joint cooperation committee jcc on october 27india has objected to china over the cpec as it is being laid through pakistanoccupied kashmir pokchina is also unhappy over the delays in the projects of the cpec which is the flagship scheme of xis multibilliondollar pet project bri resulting in cost overruns and discontentment among chinese investorslast month pakistan army chief gen qamar javed bajwa held talks with chinese defence minister general wei fenghe in a surprise visit to china ahead of his retirement