BEIJING, April 17: Pakistan and China have signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding to ‘re-energise’ their strong bilateral cooperation in all fields, including defence, space technology and trade and economics.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz confirmed at a news conference here on Tuesday after holding talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao that they had discussed nuclear cooperation but declined to comment further.

When asked about proposed development of six new nuclear power plants in Pakistan with Chinese cooperation, Prime Minister Aziz said routine discussions on the subject were going on.

Responding to a question, he said the Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project had not been discussed in the meeting.

Talks for financing the project by Chinese development banks had been going on for the past two years and a Chinese consortium had been declared the successful bidder about eight months ago to construct the project. Non-implementation of the project may deprive Pakistan of its rights over the Neelum waters.

The prime minister declined to comment on development of Thar coal by a Chinese group that had given up discussions with Pakistan on the question of tariffs.

The prime minister said the two sides had signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MOU) -- 14 in the public sector and 13 in the private sector.

One of the five agreements signed is in the private sector.

The prime minister said the two countries enjoyed very strong relations and it was difficult to always find new developments but this time the focus was on private sector cooperation to expand the bilateral from the current $5 billion to $15 billion in five years. The main challenge was to implement decisions effectively and speedily, he said.He said he had held a 40-minute one-to-one meeting with his counterpart, followed by hour-long delegation-level discussions, in which both sides agreed to strengthen their relations in the fields of defence, security, space technology, investment, trade, banking, construction of dams and energy and infrastructure development.

The prime minister said the Chinese National Space Administration and Suparco had signed a framework on deepening cooperation in space science and technology. Pakistan’s Ambassador Salman Bashir said the two sides had agreed to jointly launch a satellite, Paksat IR, for communication purposes and an earth observation satellite later.

The Civil Aviation Authority and the China Harbour Engineering Corporation signed an MOU for the construction of Gwadar airport at a cost of $100 million.

Mr Aziz said the two sides had discussed international and regional issues like those pertaining to India, Iran and Afghanistan and both sides had similar views on them. He said the two countries had agreed to consider adopting a common strategy on Afghanistan.

He said the two countries shared the view that Iran should not produce nuclear weapons and it should honour the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and pursue its nuclear programme under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. He said the two countries were against the use of force and Pakistan hoped that China and Russia could play a new role in allowing diplomacy to work.

About his meetings with heads of development banks like the China Development Bank, Exim Bank and Bank of China, the prime minister said he had sought project financing and investment in the fields of energy, hydroelectric power generation and dams. He said he had specifically invited Chinese investment for Bhasha dam and sought the neighbouring country’s active participation in the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

He said the two sides had signed a treaty on mutual judicial assistance in matters relating to crimes, besides an agreement on implementation of the five-year development programme on economic cooperation between the two nations.