Islamabad, 12 February 2015

Your Excellency Sardar Sadiq, Speaker of the National Assembly,
Your Excellency Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs,
My Pakistani brothers and sisters,

Aslam Alegum! Good afternoon.

It gives me great pleasure to join all of you in celebrating the Year of China-Pakistan Friendly Exchanges. I wish to express my warm congratulations on the inauguration of this event in Pakistan and my heart-felt thanks to all the friends long dedicated to China-Pakistan friendship.

This morning, I took off from Urumqi and flew over the Karakoram mountains to Islamabad. I was so impressed by the geographical closeness of our two countries, linked together by the same mountains and rivers, and as near and dear to each other as lips and teeth. Coming to Pakistan is like coming back to the home of dear brothers.

China and Pakistan enjoy an all-weather friendship and have carried out all-round cooperation. We Chinese have coined a special term for Pakistan, "Iron Pak", which means iron-clad, unalterable friends. Why is it so? And why has it been so rock-firm and persistently strong?

Because our relationship is based on high moral principles. Over the years, our two countries have rendered each other mutual understanding, mutual trust and mutual support. Rising above changing times and standing to the tests of international vicissitudes, our relationship has been exemplary for state-to-state relations. There are many touching stories about this friendship. Back in the 1960s and 1970s when China was faced with mounting hardships at home, it sent tens of thousands of its fine workers to help build the Karakoram Highway and make the Pakistani people's dream of "connecting the country with roads" come true. Hundreds of Chinese engineers and workers made their ultimate sacrifice with 88 of them buried in Pakistan. In 2003, I paid a tribute to the fallen in the Chinese cemetery in Gilgit where I met a cemetery keeper by the name of Madad. This ordinary Pakistani volunteered to look after the cemetery for all his life without anything in return. When Madad passed away, his son Mansoor took over in honoring the commitment. This touching story has become legendary in China-Pakistan friendship.

Because our relationship has withstood the tests of trials and tribulations. The Chinese people can never forget that it is Pakistan that gave China invaluable support when New China struggled to break out external blockade and sought to regain its lawful seat at the United Nations; that it is Pakistan that gave China all-out support on a series of issues bearing on China's core interests; and it is again Pakistan that came to China's immediate aid with a generous assistance of over 22,000 tents, the entire strategic reserve of Pakistan, when China's Sichuan was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2008. I myself received the list of the relief goods and personally witnessed this historic moment of tested friendship. On China's part, we have always firmly supported Pakistan in maintaining its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national dignity and provided it with sincere and selfless assistance for achieving economic and social development.

Because our relationship is one that is between men of noble characters. Over the past 63 years since the two countries established diplomatic relations, China and Pakistan have always respected each other, treated each other as equals, and acted with complete sincerity. We have tried our best to put ourselves in the other's shoes and never imposed our will on the other side. As the Chinese often say, relationship between men of noble characters is as pure as water and men thirst for virtue as they crave water. China-Pakistan friendship is like mountain spring, pure and clear, nourishing our people's hearts and linking them closely together.

My dear Pakistani brothers and sisters,

China has always put its relations with Pakistan high on the diplomatic agenda. And we have always seen in the Pakistani people our most trustworthy friends. In China today, the building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, an initiative raised by President Xi Jinping, is in full swing. If we liken the initiative to a symphony that involves and benefits many countries, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will be a brilliant melody of its first movement.

In 2015, we will join the Pakistani side in carefully planning and implementing the friendly exchange year activities with the high-level exchanges as the focal point, cement the people-to-people friendship, advance the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and strengthen bilateral coordination and collaboration in regional and international affairs so that China-Pakistan cooperation will deliver greater benefit to our peoples and set a good example for building a community of shared destiny. The ironclad relationship between China and Pakistan will stay shining and forever unbreakable.

In conclusion, let me wish the Year of China-Pakistan Friendly Exchanges a full success. May China-Pakistan friendship be everlasting. Chin-Pak dosti zindabad!

Thank you!