The all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan has
marched to the new heights, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Chunxiang said
at a reception in Islamabad on Friday.
The reception was held by the Chinese embassy in Pakistan to
celebrate the forthcoming traditional Muslim festival of
Eid-ul-Qurban.
Zhang said: "The exchange of visits and frequent meetings
between the top leaders of the two countries have strongly promoted
the development of the bilateral relations, enabling both sides to
achieve new progress with respect to the exchanges and cooperation
in the field of politics, economy, culture, technology etc., and
the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan has marched
to the new heights."
He recalled that the year of 2006 marked the 55th anniversary of
the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and
Pakistan, for which both sides held various grand activities of
celebration and the top leaders of the two countries exchanged
their visits.
President Hu Jintao's state visit to Pakistan in November was a
historic one and achieved a complete success, he said, adding that
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf paid a successful state visit
to China in February and in June went to China again to attend the
summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Meanwhile, he encouraged all the Chinese Muslims in Pakistan to
renew their efforts and make new and bigger contributions to the
prosperity of Pakistan, the all-directional friendly cooperation
between the two countries, the development of western China, and
the prosperity and stability of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region of China.
The Chinese Muslims are not only the important promoters for
developing people-to-people friendship between the two countries,
but also play a role as the engine and bridge for flourishing
pragmatic bilateral cooperation in economy and trade, culture and
education, and science and technology as well as some other fields,
Zhang stressed.
More than 100 representatives from the Chinese Muslims in
Pakistan attended the reception hosted by the Chinese embassy.
(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2006)
