President Asif Ali Zardari Leaves For China Today

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 9:58 am

President Asif Ali Zardari Leaves For China Today ISLAMABAD: Amid reports that Pakistan will seek a nuclear deal with China, President Asif Ali Zardari will embark on his maiden state visit to the China on Tuesday, during which the two sides are expected to ink several agreements, including in the fields of energy and space.

Zardari’s four-day visit to Beijing will be a milestone in the bilateral relationship “which have matured into comprehensive strategic partnership” between the two sides.

Zardari, during his first bilateral visit to any foreign country after taking over as President last month, will meet his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and the two leaders are expected to discuss ways to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries in various fields.

The two countries are expected to sign MoUs, agreements and protocols in the fields of economy, energy, space-technology, environment, mass communication and sports.

Earlier, soon after the US Senate overwhelmingly approved the Indo-US nuclear deal on October 1, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had indicated that Islamabad may seek a similar arrangement with China after the US repeatedly said no to Islamabad’s plea for a bilateral atomic pact.

On the eve of Zardari’s visit to Beijing, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan said the two countries had “exemplary friendly relations” and the top leadership is committed to further deepen the “time-tested” ties.

China had last week said that it is looking forward to and welcomes Zardari’s visit to the country.

China expects Zardari’s visit to deepen bilateral strategic and cooperative partnership, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.