Lahore, Guangdong agreed to forge friendship city connections

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sister cities
Lahore and Guangzhou became sister cities to expand ties on multilateral grounds.

Beijing, 28 November, 2021 (TDI): The bilateral relation of China and Pakistan has taken new turn in a long-standing historical chapter of Pakistan China Friendship. Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province and Lahore have forged friendship city connections.

Both cities have collaborated to further bilateral ties to become friendship cities to explore potential of both states in diverse fields, according to a statement issued by Guangzhou’s municipal foreign affairs office.

The two sides recently signed Memorandum of Understanding to this effect under which both cities have ensured to conduct mutual exchange of policies including economy, trade, culture, tourism, science and technology and education.

So far, Guangzhou has tied friendship city knots with 99 cities from 65 states.

It is worth mentioning here that Guangzhou had supported Lahore during the pandemic period in health sector by donating 20,000 disposable surgical masks in 2020.

Guangzhou has also uplifted the infrastructural programs in Lahore such as The Orange Line Train that has been put into operation since October 2020, which is operated and maintained by a consortium led by Guangzhou Metro.

Earlier, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan, the Chinese and Pakistani cities of Zhengzhou and Lahore have signed an agreement for establishing sister-city relations whereas Pakistan’s Balochistan and China’s Henan provinces signed a letter to establish sister provinces relations.

Also, in November 2021, Pakistan and China have agreed to beef up traditional and multifaceted friendship and signed an agreement to establish friendly relations between two provinces, Sindh and Hubei to further pragmatic collaboration in the fields of education, science and technology, technical and vocational training, cultural exchange and public relations.

The purpose of establishing a sister-province relationship is to integrate cooperation in a multitude of fields. Education, science and technology, technical and vocational training are some of the realms where cooperation would integrate. This development will also possibly forge a people-to-people connection between the two provinces.