Pakistan enjoys time-tested, all-weather ad multi-dimensional ties with China, said President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also Pakistan People's Party co-chairman, during an interview at his presidential mansion with Chinese resident reporters in Pakistan on Monday, October 14th. Meanwhile, he also voiced the hope to continue to enhance and deepen Pakistan's multi-dimensional cooperation and all-weather friendship with China.
Speaking of Pakistan's all-weather friendship and multi-dimensional cooperation with China, President Zardari said, the two Asian nations are close, friendly neighbors linked by common mountains and rivers, as well as all-weather strategic partners, and their multi-dimensional cooperation is built on the basis of mutual understanding, mutual trust and mutual support. In spite of changes that occurred in the regional and international environment, the friendship between Pakistan and China is time-tested and has turned increasingly firmer and much more solid as time goes by and is deep-rooted in the hearts and ethos of people of the two nations.
With good relationships having maintained in all spheres, Pakistan and China share identical or similar views on global or regional issues, and their friendship and cooperation have a broad basis imbued with wide-ranging connotations. The future of bilateral relationships is focusing on cooperation in economic, trade and financial spheres, with emphasis to be laid on exchanges and intercourse between their enterprises and personnel.
Regarding the party-to-party cooperative ties, said Zardari, PPP has forged an indissoluble bond with China and its ruling Communist Party from the era of late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the 1970s. All generations of our leadership have kept the Pakistan-China traditional friendship firmly in mind and will carry bilateral friendship forward from generation to generation.
Zardari spoke highly of great achievements China has scored during its reform and opening-up in the last three decades. During his first trip to China, he said he would learn its advanced experience in economic construction, acknowledging that its economy was maintaining a high-speed, stable growth and the Chinese people's living standards had been on steady rise.
Bilateral economic and trade ties are close, and the Pakistan side has set great store by and highly evaluates its economic ties with China, Zardari said. Pakistan and China are fairly complementary in their industrial structure and trade mix, with a huge potential for cooperation such fields as energy, metallurgy, telecommunications, agriculture, electric power, environmental protection and infrastructure development.
The two countries signed the Framework Agreement on Expanding and Deepening Bilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation in February 2006. Chinese companies or enterprises are welcome to invest and go in for business or commerce in Pakistan, which is in turn planning to provide special, preferable policies and a good environment for Chinese firms for a win-win outcome. During his current China visit, he will confer with personages from the Bank of China and the country's banking sector, and urge banks and financial institutions in China to open up their branches or affiliates in Pakistan,
On the issue of fighting terrorism, Zardari said, terrorism today poses a serious threat to Pakistan, South Asia region and the entire international community as a whole. Noting that terrorism should be eradicated, he said Pakistan is the victim of terrorism and that thousands of lives have been lost in numerous suicide attacks.
"The threat of terrorism cannot be fought by military means alone, and requires political will, popular mobilization and a socio-economic strategy that win the hearts and minds of nations afflicted by it," the president said. Pakistan has worked out a whole set of policies to fight against terrorism and extremism.
Modern technology needs to be used in the war on terror, and heightened security measures China had taken during Beijing's Olympic Games were very successful, and high-tech security equipment put to use was really admiring, he said, and Pakistan shall learn from China its advanced experience and technology in this regard.
By People's Daily Online, and its author is PD resident reporter in Pakistan Meng Xianglin
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