Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said that his upcoming
visit to China would further broaden cooperation between the two
friendly neighboring countries.
Musharraf will pay a state visit to China from February 19-23 at
the invitation of the Chinese President Hu
Jintao.
"We hope that we further broaden our cooperation and reach
agreement with strategic effect," Musharraf said in an interview
with a group of Chinese journalists at the presidential palace on
the eve of his five-day state visit to China.
Since his last visit, he recalled, a lot of major achievements
have arisen from the two countries' cooperation. The deepening of
the Gwadar port in southern Pakistan with the Chinese assistance
will be completed in June, 2006. The Chashma II nuclear power
station with the whole equipment imported from China had the first
concrete poured on the site in December 2005.
"These achievements are major contributions to Pakistan-China
friendship," he said. "The friendship is strong and is going
stronger."
He told Xinhua that Pakistan and China had good cooperation and
consultations on international and regional issues. He said that he
was looking forward to very broad-based discussions during his
visit to China and reaching agreements "with strategic effect".
On bilateral cooperation, Musharraf said, Pakistan and China
could enhance cooperation in telecommunications, energy, health and
higher education. He hoped that the Karakoram Highway linking
Pakistan and China would be repaired from damages in the Oct. 10
earthquake and upgraded for heavy vehicles for the speedy
development in the areas along the highway.
In his opening speech, the Pakistani president said that
Pakistan condemned the killing of three Chinese engineers in
southwestern Pakistan.
"We are annoyed at those who carried out this very evil act," he
said. "We are determined to catch them and give them strongest and
harshest punishment. Those elements do not want Pakistan to prosper
and progress. They do not want development in Pakistan."
"Since Chinese are our great friends and they are helping us in
this development and progress in various projects, they (the
gunmen) have targeted the Chinese to achieve two things: deny
progress in Pakistan and create a misunderstanding between Pakistan
and China," Musharraf said. "But we are determined that none of
these two objectives will be achieved."
"Our friendship with China is very strong and it will not be
affected by the incident," he said. "We are determined to carry out
all development activities as we were doing before. And we will be
able to bring the elements to justice and suppress them."
(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2006)