Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday called on China and Pakistan to promote greater progress in bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields to jointly push for a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.

Li made the remarks when talking with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif over the phone.

China and Pakistan are good neighbors, friends and partners, Li said, calling for maintaining high-level exchanges and strengthening strategic communication between the two countries.

Noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the initiation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Li said both sides should promote the improvement of the quality and efficiency of the CPEC cooperation to make it a demonstration of the high-quality BRI construction.

The Chinese premier said China is willing to continue to import more high-quality agricultural and livestock products from Pakistan to promote industrial cooperation between the two countries.

He also called on the two sides to speed up expanding cooperation in the fields of agriculture, mining and information technology.

For his part, Sharif hailed the iron-clad friendship between China and Pakistan, adding that Pakistan is always China's reliable partner in maintaining peace, promoting development and coping with common challenges.

Pakistan is willing to work with China to promote the high-quality development of the CPEC, deepen cooperation in areas such as infrastructure, industries, agriculture and economy and trade to push for further development of the Pakistan-China all-weather strategic partnership, he said.

(Cover via CFP)