President reaffirms Pak support to China’s sovereignty

President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday reaffirmed Pakistan’s support to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and reiterated Pakistan’s firm position on Taiwan and Tibet issues. Foreign Minister of China Yang Jiechi, who is on an official visit to Pakistan, called on President here on Saturday. President congratulated the Chinese people on the forthcoming Olympics in Beijing and said that Pakistan was firmly opposed to any efforts to undermine or politicize this mega sports event.He thanked the Chinese government for continued assistance and support to Pakistan. President mentioned that Pakistan and China enjoy a broad based, all encompassing relationship. People of Pakistan admired the great success of the Chinese people and greatly valued their traditional friendship with China, he said and added this friendship spans over half a century and is imbued by a high degree of trust and commonality of interests.President said Pak-China friendship has matured into a comprehensive cooperative partnership, which is of great importance for Pakistan’s socio-economic development as well as for regional peace and stability. “Our relations are marked by convergence of views on regional and global issues. Both countries closely cooperate with each other at international fora”, he added.The architecture for sustained development of economic and trade relations is now in place between the two countries.Pakistan-China Joint Five Year Economic Plan signed in November 2006 and the Free Trade Agreement operational since last year have bolstered our economic cooperation, he added. President said bilateral trade between the two sides is now $ 6.8 billion and both sides are committed to achieve a trade target of $ 15 billion by 2011. Pakistan-China Joint Investment Company, established in 2007, is geared to promote joint ventures and investments. In recent years, Chinese investments in Pakistan have shown an upward trend. Several projects of national significance are being executed with Chinese assistance. Chinese Foreign Minister congratulated President over the smooth democratic transition and expressed China’s support for Pakistan’s sovereignty, social stability and economic progress. He described Pakistan-China friendship as “time-tested” and “all-weather” and expressed full satisfaction over the continued growth in bilateral ties. He greatly lauded President Musharraf’s contribution for the promotion of bilateral relations and conveyed the greetings of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Foreign Minister said that President’s recent visit to China had further solidified our strategic partnership.Underscoring the importance of our special relations, Foreign Minister Yang reaffirmed China’s determination to take these relations to greater heights. Chinese Foreign Minister expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s important role in promoting peace, security and regional stability and its contribution in the fight against terrorism and extremism. Foreign Minister said that China will continue to support Pakistan in its efforts for economic development and more Chinese corporations and business entities will be encouraged to invest in Pakistan.He said that China wishes to enhance its cooperation in all mutually beneficial fields, in development of communications network, telecommunications, energy, mineral sector and education.He also stressed the need to intensify people-to-people contacts.