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)