Pakistan, China will deepen strategic partnership

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have resolved to enhance strategic coordination, advance pragmatic cooperation and work together to meet challenges in pursuit of common development.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed the joint communique with his Pakistani counterpart, Yusuf Raza Gilani at the end of his three-day visit to Islamabad in which he met with President Asif Ali Zardari, the country’s senior military leadership and leaders of the main political parties.
“Pakistan and China resolve to consolidate and deepen their all-weather strategic partnership of cooperation in the backdrop of a complex and ever changing international and regional situation,” said a communique issued here on Sunday.
It said that China-Pakistan relations have gone beyond bilateral dimensions and acquired broader regional and ‘international ramifications’.
The two sides announced that 2011 be designated the “Year of China-Pakistan Friendship”, and decided to hold a series of activities in the political, economic, trade, military, cultural, sporting and education fields, to warmly celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Pakistan diplomatic relations.
The Pakistani side reiterated that it remains committed to the one-China policy and opposes Taiwan independence.
The Chinese side will support, on a priority basis the national highway network post-flood rehabilitation project in flood-affected areas, improved rice-processing and advanced ventilated cold storage capacity and crop monitoring through remote imagery satellite.
The Chinese side will allocate 10 million US Dollars for the Citizen Damage Compensation Plan of Pakistan, and provide 100 million US Dollars in preferential loans and 300 million US Dollars in preferential buyer’s credit for projects of great importance to Pakistan. The two sides agreed to establish currency swap arrangements.
Premier Wen Jiabao invited PM Gilani to China.