Pakistan backs China’s Global Development Initiative, calls for stronger multilateral cooperation

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI), calling for stronger multilateral cooperation to accelerate development and address challenges facing developing countries.

The remarks came during a high-level meeting on the GDI hosted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, where PM Shehbaz highlighted climate disasters, development financing gaps, rising food and fuel prices and geopolitical tensions as obstacles to achieving the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

PM Shehbaz highlighted widening financing gaps, increasingly severe climate-related disasters, rising food and fuel prices and renewed geopolitical tensions as major challenges threatening to reverse decades of development gains in poorer countries. He said stronger multilateral cooperation was needed to tackle these challenges, describing China’s GDI as a timely initiative.

PM Shehbaz said the initiative had already delivered practical benefits across the developing world through cooperation based on mutual benefit.

“Pakistan reaffirms its full support for the GDI as an important platform for solidarity, South-South cooperation and the delivery of concrete results for developing countries,” he said.

PM Shehbaz said the objectives of the GDI complemented Pakistan’s national economic transformation agenda. He also highlighted Islamabad’s continued economic cooperation with Beijing through the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which he said was entering its second phase.

As the 2030 deadline approaches, Pakistan is prepared to expand cooperation with partners under the GDI by scaling up successful projects and exploring new areas of collaboration, he said.

PM Shehbaz also backed China’s Global Governance Initiative, saying it sought a more representative global governance system that responded more effectively to the priorities of developing countries.

He called for the United Nations’ development role to be strengthened under Secretary-General António Guterres’ UN80 initiative, alongside greater capacity to deliver tangible results on the ground.

“Pakistan has been and will remain a firm supporter of all these very important initiatives,” PM Shehbaz said.

He concluded by reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to working closely with China and other members of the Group of Friends to advance the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity.