Pakistan declared iron-clad friend of China by Chinese Communist party official

BEIJING - A senior Chinese Communist Party (CPC) official said that Pakistan was China’s iron-clad friend and the two brotherly countries have a very profound friendship as sweet as honey and as hard as iron.

"Pakistan is our ironclad friend. Our two countries have a very profound friendship as sweet as honey and as hard as iron," Guo Yezhou, a vice minister in the CPC’s International Department said at a press conference on Saturday.

Stressing the need to pay special attention to neighborhood diplomacy, he said China has as many as 14 land neighbors and several other neighbors on the sea adding that without a good neighborhood, the security of the country cannot be guaranteed.

He maintained that the security situation required both from the government and from the party, a need to pay special attention to neighborhood diplomacy.

Guo Yezhou said the CPC’s foreign contacts job should be seen as an important part of the Chinese diplomacy.

"We’ve always made plans and pushed forward the job centering on double position-setting, namely that the Party’s external exchange is an important front of the Party and an important part of the country’s overall diplomacy."

Guo continued that Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has made systematic instructions on the Party’s foreign relations work and now the job involved Party diplomacy, public diplomacy, and civil diplomacy.