By NNN-APP,
Beijing : The upcoming visit of President Asif Ali Zardari will help further invigorate the Sino-Pak relations in all dimensions, said Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan here.
Talking to Chinese Media on President Zardari’s visit he said this will be the first official visit of Mr. Zardari to any foreign country after assuming the office of President of Pakistan.
He said this is the long standing tradition and President Zardari is also maintaining it by visiting first to China, adding that it also demonstrates the love, affection and strong ties the leadership and people of both the countries are maintaining.
Ambassador Masood Khan said that the first objective of President Zardari’s visit is not only to maintain the present strong strategic partnership, but also to carry forward these bonds to new heights.
The strengthening of economic cooperation is the second objective of President Zardari’s visit besides looking for future relationship between the two countries.
He told the media that in 2002, the bilateral trade was around US $ 2 billion, which has risen to over $ 7 billion now, however, the leadership of both the countries is committed to take this figure of $ 15 billion by 2010.
“To achieve this goal, we have to mobilize not only the government machinery but also encourage the corporate sector of the two sides to come forward”, he noted.
He said that China had been one of the main contributors toward the economic uplift of Pakistan.
In recent past, he said, China has greatly invested in all sectors of Pakistan including construction of Gwadar Port, Heavy Engineering Complex, power generation, mining, telecommunication, etc. and the new government is committed to further flourish this cooperation.
Ambassador Khan said that during President Zardari’s stay here both sides will also explore new avenues in economic cooperation including banking sector as Chinese bankers have vast experience and known with great respect around the world.
He pointed out that as economic fundamentals of Pakistan are very strong and in the past years the economic growth registered 7 percent, so the cooperation in banking sector will be very beneficial for both countries.
The ambassador said that it is true that at present, Pakistan’s economy is facing some problems, but this is a brief phase as we have strong macro economic indicators, therefore we would be able to overcome it for which present democratically elected government has already initiated a number of corrective measures.
As a whole, he said that the visit of President Zardari will further strengthen our strategic partnership, deepen our economic cooperation and would help to explore new avenues for investments in Pakistan.
Regarding cooperation in the field of fight against terrorism and extremism, Ambassador Masood Khan said that Pakistan and China are continuously cooperating with each other in this field.
He pointed that the concerned agencies and department of both the countries have been closely coordinating with each other to intensify their cooperation.
The ambassador said that it is an undeniable fact that terrorism was a threat to the international community, therefore Pakistan and China are not exception.
“Extremism and Terrorism are two evils that we must fight together”, he noted.
If you see the past record of cooperation between the two countries, our policies succeeded in this area and we will continue to successfully frustrate the evil designs of terrorists in future as well.
Pakistan, he said respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of China and we always supported China’s stand on Tibet and Taiwan on international forums and assured that our country will continue to do so in future as well.
He said that there is strong political will among the leadership of two the countries to bring the existing strong bonds of friendship to a new height adding the President Zardari’s priorities include giving fresh impetus to these bonds.
Our bonds of friendship are very good and would further grow stronger in future, he observed.