KARACHI, Jan 12: A delegation of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Council (CPPCC) called on the Senate Chairman, Muhammadmian Soomro, at his residence on Wednesday.

The visiting delegation was led by Mr. Zhou Keren, Vice-Chairman and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of CPPCC. Welcoming the Chinese delegation, the Senate Chairman spoke of the deep friendly ties between Pakistan and China.

He said that China is our time-tested friend and that Pakistanis value this association tremendously. Mr. Soomro also mentioned the development projects that are going on in Pakistan with collaboration of the Chinese.

He particularly named Gwadar Port, Coastal Highway and the Thar Coal Project etc. Mr. Zhou Keren said that Pakistan and China enjoy very deep friendly ties and that the visit of this delegation was aimed at cementing these relations further.

Later, talking to the media, the Senate Chairman said that this visit of the CPPCC delegation augurs well as there has been a regular exchange with the Chinese CPPCC which is the counterpart of Pakistan's Senate as well as that of the National Assembly- the Peoples Congress.

He said that at today's meeting almost all topics were discussed. Mr Soomro said, "we also talked about the mutual cooperation existing between the two countries to further cement our ties in commercial sector, foreign policy, defence etc." -APP