Playing down the security concerns arising out of the recent suicide bomb attack on French nationals, China has promised to designate Pakistan as a tourist destination for its people to promote tourism in Pakistan. Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan who arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday on a two-day visit announced his government's decision to designate Pakistan as a tourist destination for Chinese tourists during his talks with Pakistan foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, official reports said.
Officials said that the Chinese decision would certainly boost confidence among the international community as the recent terrorist strikes in Pakistan, specially that of the suicide attack on team of French engineers and technicians working on a submarine project on May 8 had caused serious damage. An earlier attack on a church in which two American were killed has made most of the western diplomatic missions, including the United States to pull out all the non-essential staff.
An announcement here said that both Sattar and Jiaxuan covered a wide range of bilateral matters as well as issues of regional and international significance during the talks which lasted for almost three hours. Jiaxuan was scheduled to meet Musharraf before his departure to China.
Later, in an interview state owned PTV, the Chinese foreign minister described the discussion as very successful. The two sides had identical views on most of the issues and we have reached lot of important consensus, he said. Bureau Report