BEIJING: Ambassador Khalil Hashmi presented his credentials as the 22nd Ambassador of Pakistan to China, to Chinese President Xi Jinping today at an elegant ceremony at the Great Hall of People in Beijing.

The ceremony also included the presentation of credentials by a group of foreign envoys from other countries.**

The presentation of credentials was followed by a brief interaction with President Xi. The Chinese president congratulated the envoys on assuming their role as ambassadors to China and underlined China’s foreign policy priorities, including improvement of the lives of 1.4 billion Chinese people and the need for win-win and mutually beneficial cooperation: economic globalization; and inclusive multilateralism.

Key Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi; Hua Chunying, Spokesperson of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA); and senior officials of Chinese MFA were also present at the ceremony.

Ambassador Hashmi, with a distinguished career in diplomacy, has around thirty years of experience with the Foreign Service of Pakistan.

He has served at a number of key positions, both bilateral and multilateral. His last assignment prior to assuming role as Ambassador to China was as Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva. The envoy has also served in China earlier as Counsellor at Pakistan Embassy, Beijing from 2008-2010.

Ambassador Hashmi, for his current assignment, had arrived in Beijing in November 2023, and had started his official work. The presentation of credentials formalizes Ambassador’s role as Pakistan’s envoy to China.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024