Pakistani naval ship SAIF arrives in Shanghai to further goodwill

Pakistani naval ship SAIF (PNS SAIF) arrived Tuesday in Shanghai on a goodwill visit and to participate in joint naval exercise in a bid to boost defense cooperation with their Chinese counterpart, according to Pakistani Embassy in Beijing.

The naval ship was welcomed at the Wusong Naval Port as a band of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy played welcoming tunes.

Speaking on the occasion, Captain Shahzad Iqbal highlighted the significance of the visit and brotherly relations between Pakistan and China.

“We traveled more than 9,000 nautical miles from Pakistan to Shanghai. This distance will reduce manifold on completion of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” Iqbal said, referring to the flagship project between the two countries. As part of the Belt and Road initiative, CPEC builds a strategic framework for the bilateral practical cooperation and is a flagship project for the connectivity between China and its neighboring countries.

PNS SAIF was built in 2010 in Shanghai and this was its first visit to Shanghai. It is equipped with state of the art weapons, sensors and machinery, making it capable of undertaking a variety of maritime operations.

Pakistan Navy and PLA Navy have longstanding relations.

Captain Iqbal said that the ship will participate in a bilateral naval exercise which he hoped would be advanced and meaningful. This would be the 5th Joint Naval Exercise in the series.

On its journey to Shanghai from Pakistan, PNS SAIF docked in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Pattaya, Thailand. After Shanghai, it plans to visit ports in the Philippines and Malaysia.