Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said, being a strong friend and close ally, China had always been supporting Pakistan in the regional affairs. Pakistan, he added, attached great importance to the advice of the Chinese friends with regard to its relations with India and making on-going peace process successful.
He said Chinese were very clear and they had always been supportive of on-going dialogue between Pakistan and India. He pointed out the Chinese had themselves had tension in the past in their relations with India. Now, they were negotiating for the peaceful settlement of their border dispute with India.
In reply to a question, Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan was moving ahead to resolve its basic dispute of Kashmir with India through composite dialogue. He referred to the recent agreement regarding the start of bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar and said it was a breakthrough for providing an opportunity to Kashmiri people to involve themselves in the peace process.
Kashmir, he said, was most important issue for Pakistan and they believed the role of Kashmiri people was very important for its final settlement. History had proved that Kashmir had been the core issue, and it caused immense frictions between the two countries leading to wars, he added.
"We are confident that the goodwill generated by the recent agreement would lead to greater interaction between the Kashmiris living on both sides of LoC," he said.
This, he added, might induce the government of India to involve the Kashmiris in on-going dialogue sooner, rather than later, because in their ultimate analysis it was about their (Kashmiris) future, they were talking about.
Eulogising the facilitative role of China in the peace process, the Foreign Minister recalled his meeting with his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh during Asia Co-operation Dialogue (ACD) in Qingdao China in June last year.
He said he was looking forward to have another round of talks with the Indian Foreign Minister during the next ACD meeting, to be held in Islamabad in early April 2005.
To another question, Kasuri said Pakistan and China had excellent co-operation in combating terrorism. Both countries were engaged in raising the living standard of their people. They would not allow any attempt that created instability and hampered the process of economic development.
About the forthcoming visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Pakistan, the Foreign Minister said, "We are looking forward to the inauguration of ministerial meeting of Asia Co-operation Dialogue (ACD) in Islamabad by the Chinese Premier. China and Pakistan are closest friends and allies, and it would be very appropriate that an important regional forum's meeting is inaugurated by a top Chinese leader."
A lot of bilateral work will be done during the visit of the Chinese Premier, he said adding the visit would be good opportunity to discuss bilateral and international issues.
"China and Pakistan have complete unanimity of views on regional and international issues and they are engaged in developing very close comprehensive strategic, defence and economic partnership," he added.
The two countries, during the visit would also review the progress on a large number of projects that had been undertaken jointly in Pakistan with the Chinese assistance.
Kasuri said it was the strong desire of the two governments that the existing diplomatic relations should lead to strong economic co-operation. A number of Chinese-funded projects were going on in Pakistan, and most important was Gwadar, which was then nearing completion.
The Foreign Minister also referred to the recent visit to China by the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and said it had laid a strong foundation to further strengthen their economic ties, particularly, at the private sector's level.
During the visit, he said many new projects were identified. The two sides, he said, realised they had to make conscious effort to involve private sector in the economic co-operation, giving boost to trade and investment between the two countries.
The two governments were making their best to create an enabling environment for the private sector to enhance the mutually beneficial co-operation, he added.
He said many other proposals were being finalised to gear up economic activities. It was hoped the Joint Investment Company (JIC) would be set up soon, besides expanding the list of Preferential Trade Agreement that would ultimately lead to Free Trade Agreement.
Earlier, on arrival at the Beijing airport, the senior officials of Chinese Foreign Office and the Pakistan Embassy, received the minister.