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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held one-on-one meeting here on Friday and vowed to further strengthen their evergreen fraternal ties in diverse fields including trade, energy, technology.
The two leaders who met here at the Prime Minister House, besides discussing the way and means on how to deepen the strategic bilateral relationship between Pakistan and China also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Premier Wen is in Pakistan on a three-day official visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.
The two sides also discussed increased exchanges in education and culture and expressed desire to send more Pakistani students to China to study subjects like Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Advanced Chemistry and Physics.
Prime Minister Gilani termed China as a trusted partner, very good neighbour and a close friend of Pakistan.
The talks focussed on building a mutually beneficial economic partnership, besides developing wider cooperation on regional and international affairs.
The Chinese Premier said China would expand pragmatic cooperation with Pakistan to bring about tangible benefits to the Pakistani people and increase Pakistan's self-development capability.
The two sides discussed ways to boost cooperation in agriculture, energy, finance and banking, and science and technology.
The one-on-one meeting was followed by the delegation-level talks. During the delegation level talks, Prime Minister Gilani was assisted among others by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khan and other senior officials.
The Chinese Premier's entourage includes Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Minister of Communications Li Shenglin, Minister of Culture Cai Wu, Director of the Research Office of the State Council Xie Fuzhan, Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission Zhu Zhixin, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and the MoC International Trade Representative Gao Hucheng, Vice Secretary-General of the State Council and Director of the Premier's Office Qiu Xiaoxiong and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue.
