17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: China's State Counsellor and former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan will lead a 20-member delegation to Pakistan on Sunday for top-level consultations aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation.

During his two-day visit here Tang Jiaxuan will meet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

His meeting with Mr Aziz is slated for Sunday and call on the president is scheduled for the following day. On Monday he will also hold delegation-level talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Terming it a very important visit for Pakistan, a senior foreign ministry official told Dawn on Saturday that it was part of the ongoing high-level contact between China and Pakistan.

"Talks between the two sides would focus on ongoing projects as well as the new mega projects ranging from infrastructure to science and technology to space," the official said.

The scheduled visit comes on the heels of the kidnapping episode of two Chinese engineers in South Waziristan that ended in the death of one of them.

According to a Chinese source although the primary purpose of the visit is to further strengthen and encourage the long-standing Sino-Pakistan friendship, the concerns of the Chinese government regarding security of its nationals working in Pakistan will also figure in the discussions here.

The head of the delegation is expected to seek firm assurances from Pakistan's top leadership for foolproof security of all Chinese nationals living in Pakistan.

Members of the delegation include head of a key Chinese monetary institution and government representatives mainly from the ministries of foreign affairs and commerce, it is learnt.

Mr Jiaxuan, seen in the government circles here as a "great friend of Pakistan". He is considered to be among the pioneers of the new Chinese foreign policy in the mid-eighties.

Mr Jiaxuan, who has visited Pakistan earlier as foreign minister, will be coming here in a special aircraft on Sunday morning.

According to one official estimate, more than a couple thousand Chinese engineers and technicians are working on several major projects in Pakistan. Most of them being in the Frontier and Balochistan provinces. Saindak, Gwadar and Chashma II are among the major projects.