ISLAMABAD — China's Premier Li Qiang on Monday inaugurated a Beijing-funded airport built in restive southwestern Pakistan a week after militants killed two Chinese workers, as he arrived for a regional security meeting in Islamabad.
Li will be the most prominent leader at the two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization starting Tuesday to discuss how to boost security and economic ties between the member states. It was founded by Russia and China to counter Western alliances.
Hours after arriving in Islamabad, Li and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a televised ceremony virtually inaugurated a Chinese-funded international airport in Gwadar, in the southwestern province of Balochistan. It's part of a massive investment by Beijing that links a deep sea port and airport on the Arabian Sea by road with China.
Separatists in Balochistan, who accuse the Chinese and others of economic exploitation, are opposed to the project. Last week, two Chinese workers were killed and another was wounded when a suicide bomber dispatched by separatists rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into their convoy outside the country's largest airport in Karachi.
Eight Pakistani security officials were also wounded in the Oct. 6 attack, which targeted the thousands of Chinese working in Pakistan on projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The two leaders also witnessed the signing of agreements to boost economic and trade ties. Li is the first Chinese premier to visit Pakistan in more than a decade, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar.
Li vowed to ''continue to working hand-in-hand'' with Pakistan on joint economic projects, like the Gwadar airport, which he said was built and modernized in five years in the deserts of Balochistan.
''This gift from our brother from China is yet another feather in the cap of the CPEC,'' Sharif said. He assured Li that he would work closely with him to ensure the safety of Chinese workers in Pakistan.
