Beijing, Nov 23: China, a close ally of Pakistan, has hoped that their "cooperative partnership" would further strengthen under the leadership of the newly-elected Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. "I firmly believe that through concerted efforts, the comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan will be further deepened and expanded," Chinese premier Zhu Rongji in a congratulatory message to Jamali, who takes over as Pakistan's 19th prime minister today.
In major international and regional issues, China and Pakistan, by supporting and coordinating with each other, have played key roles in maintaining their interests and the interests of other developing countries, Zhu said. Since China and Pakistan established diplomatic relations 51 years ago, bilateral cooperation in various fields based on equality and mutual benefit has produced fruitful results, Zhu said.
In a separate message to the recently elected Speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, the chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress of China, Li Peng said China and Pakistan are neighbouring countries enjoying a close friendship.
He said the two sides, which enjoyed mutual understanding and trust, have developed an "all-weather" friendship by abiding by the five principles of peaceful co-existence.
Parliaments of the two countries have maintained close contacts for years, and made great contributions to promote the development of bilateral relations, he said.
Li also expressed belief that during the tenure of Hussain, the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries and their parliaments would enjoy further development. Bureau Report