Chinese ambassador to Pakistan Luo Zhaohui on Monday urged Pakistan and China to join hands to push their bilateral relationship forward.

He made the remarks when addressing a seminar jointly held by the Institute of Strategic Studies of Islamabad (ISSI) and the Chinese embassy in Islamabad on Monday.

Luo pointed out that China was satisfied with the Sino-Pak relationship, but the two sides should make efforts to deepen cooperation.

The political ties between China and Pakistan were strong while the economic and trade cooperation should be enhanced, Luo said, adding that the scale of bilateral trade was relatively small despite rapid growth.

In recent years, China and Pakistan signed quite a number of agreements and memorandum of understandings. However, the implementation of these agreements was not well supervised and good intentions did not bear fruits, Luo said. He also suggested the two sides should set up a high-level coordination committee to make sure the agreements were implemented.

Recent years witnessed the efficient and healthy official communication between China and Pakistan, but the people to people contact was not as good, Luo said.

He said China attached great importance to its relations with Pakistan and looked forward to bringing the Sino-Pak relationship to a new height.

The director general of ISSI, Dr. Shireen M Mazari, said at the seminar the Pakistan-China relationship was well-established and the strategic nature of the relationship should be sustained.

Director of the China Study Center of ISSI Fazal-ur-Rahman said the Pakistan-China relations were based on solid foundations and would not be impacted by the changes in regional or international situation.

The chairman of ISSI, Inam ul Haque, said the two countries should enhance their bilateral relations.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2007)