Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visits to India and Pakistan from Dec. 15 to Dec. 19 are fruitful and successful with rich achievements, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday.

Yang, who accompanied Wen on his visits, told reporters that Wen's visits are a major diplomatic move of China bearing a far-reaching strategic significance.

Both India and Pakistan are important countries in South Asia, Yang said, adding the development of China's relations with the two countries would have an important influence on peace and prosperity not only in South Asia, but also in Asia and the world at large.

To develop friendship and good relations with India and Pakistan and promote mutual trust and cooperation is the common aspiration of China and its neighbors, Yang said.

Yang said Premier Wen participated in more than 30 major activities and delivered important speeches during his visits to the two countries, which have yielded fruitful results.

During the visits, China signed separately with India and Pakistan a string of cooperation documents and commercial contracts worth more than 10 billion U.S. dollars.

Wen also held talks with Indian and Pakistani leaders to promote bilateral cooperation.

Yang said Wen's visits have enhanced the two-way strategic partnerships with India and Pakistan, which presented China as a responsible country committed to good-neighborliness, unity and cooperation with its neighbors.

Enhancing political trust, cooperation with India

Yang said both China and India are each other's important neighbors. The two are emerging developing countries with ancient civilizations.

The past 60 years since China and India established diplomatic relations have witnessed both progress and setbacks in the development of bilateral relations, but friendship and cooperation are always the mainstream of their ties, Yang said.

At present, the Chinese-Indian relations have maintained a good momentum of overall development. The two sides have established a strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity and bilateral cooperation in various fields has been expanded, Yang said.

During the visit to India, Wen held talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh and met with Indian President Pratibha Patil, as well as leaders of major parties.