China-Pakistan friendship lasts forever

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari’s first visit to China from Oct. 14 to 17 was hailed as positive and fruitful. An article published recently by the Associated Press of Pakistan said Zardari’s visit has made a crucial step forward in improving all-round Sino-Pakistan strategic cooperation and bringing vigour and vitality to the time-honoured Sino-Pakistan friendship, which will serve as a milestone in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Pakistan is the first Islamic country and one of the first Asian countries to establish diplomatic ties with China. Since the two-way relations was set up on May 21, 1951, the two countries have been maintaining the good-neighbourness and friendly cooperation under the framework of Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The time-honoured China-Pakistan relations has developed into a pofound friendship and an all-round cooperation, and kept deepening and expanding. The two countries forged close cooperation and called for concerted efforts on world arena, and played an active and influential role in coopering with regional and international issues.

In the era of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the 1970s, the People’s Party of Pakistan , the country’s ruling party started the friendly exchange with China, and the relations continued with Benazir Bhutto as well as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. The PPP was really proud of the ties with China. Zardari reiterated that Pakistan-China friendship was a long-term historical mission, and he would, as always, firmly maintain and strengthen the bilateral relations.

China and Pakistan have developed a good exchange and cooperation mechanism in the fields of economic and trade, science and technology, security, defense, education, culture as well as agriculture. Leaders from both countries have conducted negotiations and coordination on major issues of common concern. During Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit to the south Asian country in 2006, Chinese government planned to invite a total of 500 Pakistani youths to China in the next five years; meanwhile, as a return, Pakistan also decided to receive 500 children from China within five years. As of the education cooperation, Pakistan sent excellent students every year to study in China, and the Confucius Institute in Islamabad has already been set up. All these activities will further promote Sino-Pakistani cultural exchange.

China and Pakistan is complementary in terms of industry and trade, and have huge potential in the fields of energy, metallurgy, telecommunications, agriculture, power, environmental protection and infrastructure construction. The signing-off of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement and the Five-year Development Plan for China-Pakistan Economic and Trade Cooperation laid solid foundation for the further development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries in the fields of finance, banking, IT and hi-tech. The volume of two-way trade has hit 7 billion US dollars so far, and is expected to reach 15 billion by 2012. Over 7,000 Chinese technicians and skilled workers took part in the projects of Gwadar Port, Saindak Cooper-gold Mine, Chashma Nuclear Power Plant, Duddar Zinc-lead Mine, and reconstruction and expansion of Karakoram Highway.

A friendship forest in Islamabad witnessed the deep China-Pakistan friendship in the past 50 years. Many Chinese leaders have planted trees there during their state visit to Pakistan since Premier Zhou Enlai planted the first friendship tree in 1964. Some of them have grown towering trees, symbolising the deep, fruitful and ever-lasting China-Pakistan ties.

By People's Daily Online