- BEIJING -- China and Pakistan
have for the first time signed a charter to step up bilateral defence cooperation
to help maintain peace and stability in South Asia.
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- The agreement, as part of Pakistani Prime Minister Mir
Zafarullah Khan Jamali's recent high profile visit to China, was signed
in Beijing on Tuesday after senior officials from the two countries held
in-depth talks on the security situation in South Asia, diplomatic sources
said.
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- The Pakistani side to the talks was led by the visiting
Minister of State for Defence production Habibullah Khan Waraich while
his Chinese counterpart was Zhang Wei Min.
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- Details of the Sino-Pakistani defence charter were not
available and China's state-run media kept silent on the major bilateral
agreement.
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- Interestingly, the agreement has been signed a day after
Chinese Foreign Minister Liu Zhaoxing, during a telephone conversation
with his British counterpart, Jack Straw, expressed China's concern about
the "no-contact, no-dialogue impasse" between India and Pakistan.
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- China maintains that its military cooperation with "all
weather" friend, Pakistan has enabled maintenance of peace and Stability
in South Asia and was "normal" under state-to-state relationship.
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- Jamali, during his three-day official visit to Beijing
recently, had met with the chairman of the Central Military Commission
(CMC), Jiang Zemin as well as the Chinese Defence Minister Genera Cao Gangchuan
and had impressed upon them to have closer Sino-Pakistani Defence cooperation.
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