Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif begins 4-day China visit amid fragile US-Iran truce

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday began a four-day visit to China, arriving there days after visits by US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.He arrived in Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province, according to state news agency Xinhua, which did not provide further details.The visit comes amid the ongoing US-Iran conflict, with Pakistan playing a mediatory role between the two sides.However, the Chinese foreign ministry has yet to confirm whether Chinese President Xi Jinping and Sharif would discuss the Middle East conflict.Earlier this week, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said only “issues of common concern” would be discussed.“China supports Pakistan in playing a fair and balanced mediating role in promoting peace and ending the war,” he told reporters.Islamabad has emerged as a public mediator between Washington and Tehran, hosting historic face-to-face talks last month that failed to produce a lasting agreement.Beijing, meanwhile, has played a quieter diplomatic role, facilitating phone calls and meetings with officials from Gulf nations affected by Iran’s attacks following the joint American-Israeli strikes that triggered the conflict on February 28.The war has remained paused since April 8 after Trump announced a ceasefire.However, in recent days, the US leader has described the intermittent negotiations with Iran as being on the “borderline” between renewed military action and a possible agreement to end the conflict.After high-profile talks with Xi in Beijing last week, Trump told Fox News that his Chinese counterpart had offered to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz — a key oil shipping route that has been virtually blockaded by Iran since the war erupted.The Republican leader’s Beijing visit was the first by a sitting US president to China since 2017, when Trump himself travelled to the country during his first term in office.(With AFP inputs)