At the recent 2021 Forum on Cooperation between China and Pakistan Friendship Provinces and Cities hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in China, Dongying City, Shandong Province and Gujranwala, Pakistan signed the Letter of Intent on Establishing Friendship City Relationship.

Gujranwala developed in industry and commerce is an important industrial city in Pakistan and its fifth most populous city. Home to campuses of several prestigious universities, the city is only 68 kilometers away from the Sialkot International Airport. Punjab where the city is located is Pakistan's most populous province that established friendly relationship with Shandong in 2009. Dongying is a prefecture-level city in Shandong, the central city of the Yellow River Delta approved by the State Council and a major petroleum base in China. The two cities will cooperate in agriculture, textile and economic trade, seek common development and keep pushing forward friendly relationship.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan. At the forum themed "Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development", the local governments of the two countries reached a broad consensus on promoting pragmatic cooperation and establishing a closer community of shared future for China and Pakistan. Chinese and Pakistani guests, including Zhang Chunxian, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China; Qasim Khan Suri, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan; and Lin Songtian, President of CPAFFC, attended and addressed the forum. More than 240 delegates from the local governments of both cities were present online and offline.