Response to letter inspires Pakistani students to deepen bilateral friendship

Pakistani students at Tianjin University were left feeling inspired with immense pride and gratitude after learning a group letter they had written had been mentioned during a recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The letter expressed the aspirations of the students to become builders of cooperation, promoters of exchanges and guardians of friendship between the two countries.

Asma Bibi, a doctoral candidate at Tianjin University's School of Architecture, was among the Pakistani students who signed the letter.

She described the acknowledgment as a symbol of the "ironclad friendship" between the neighboring countries.

"This moment means a great deal to me," Bibi told China Daily. "As a Pakistani student studying in China, I feel an even stronger responsibility to carry forward the friendship between our two countries."

Her comments came as she returned from the second International Open Dialogue Forum in Moscow, where she was selected as one of 104 participants invited after a monthslong review process that drew more than 1,600 submissions from 100 countries.

The forum, held from April 27-29 at the National Centre Russia, focused on global governance, sustainable development and cooperation among countries in the Global South.

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the event with a video address encouraging young scholars to pursue academic courage and a spirit of collaboration.

Bibi's research paper, titled "From Floods to Futures: A Transformative Theory of Integrated Climate and Psychological Resilience", was selected under the forum's environmental investment track.

Based on a decade-long case study in Pakistan, the research examines how community tree planting and landscape restoration projects can strengthen both climate resilience and psychological well-being, particularly among women and marginalized communities.

According to Bibi, the initiative has reached more than 200,000 people across 28 cities and 300 villages in Pakistan, with women accounting for about 70 percent of participants.

The project also aligns with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action, gender equality, and good health and well-being.

During the Moscow forum, Bibi participated in discussions with policymakers and scholars on climate governance and international cooperation.

She also attended a smaller youth dialogue session with Maxim Oreshkin, deputy head of the Russian Presidential Executive Office, where participants discussed economic cooperation among countries in the Global South.

Bibi said the experience reinforced her belief that challenges such as climate change and inequality require international collaboration.

"Participating in the Open Dialogue Forum made me profoundly aware that the most pressing challenges know no borders," she said."I have learned to see landscape architecture as a medium for nurturing resilience and dignity."

She added that she hopes to promote academic and climate cooperation among China, Pakistan and Russia while continuing her doctoral research on climate-resilient communities.

Bibi expressed her plans to bridge her academic research with practical action.

"I hope to launch a 'China-Pakistan Youth Action' initiative, inviting more young people from both countries to join this effort, so that people-to-people exchanges become a solid foundation for our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership," she said.

Last year, Bibi received the R. K. Pachauri Award for Youth-Led Climate Action, named after the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra K. Pachauri.