China's premier inaugurates a Beijing-funded airport at the start of a Pakistan trip

ISLAMABAD (AP) — China’s Premier Li Qiang on Monday inaugurated a Beijing-funded airport built in restive southwestern Pakistan a week after militants killed two Chinese workers, as he arrived for a regional security meeting in Islamabad.

Li will be the most prominent leader at the two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization starting Tuesday to discuss how to boost security and economic ties between the member states. It was founded by Russia and China to counter Western alliances.

Hours after arriving in Islamabad, Li and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a televised ceremony virtually inaugurated a Chinese-funded international airport in Gwadar, in the southwestern province of Balochistan. It's part of a massive investment by Beijing that links a deep sea port and airport on the Arabian Sea by road with China.

Separatists in Balochistan, who accuse the Chinese and others of economic exploitation, are opposed to the project. Last week, two Chinese workers were killed and another was wounded when a suicide bomber dispatched by separatists rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into their convoy outside the country’s largest airport in Karachi.