President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday, appreciating China’s development journey and the Pakistan-China “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership,” emphasized the need to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in education, agriculture, energy, and connectivity.
The president, in an interview with China Global Television Network during his recent visit to China, said that his visits to the country were meant for goodwill, bringing the support of the Pakistani people to China in both good and bad times.
He praised China’s leading role in the East and lauded President Xi Jinping’s initiatives, particularly the Global Governance Initiative, meant for promoting respect for each nation’s sovereignty.
“Global governance means I can’t walk into any other country. No other country can walk into me. They have to be respectful about my territory. I should be respectful about their territory,” he commented.
As the president’s interview was recorded in Urumqi city, he appreciated the city’s development as well as the warm hospitality to him and his delegation.
“Any part of China I go, I feel loved…So, the Chinese love keeps bringing me back and forth,” said the president, who was on his 17th visit to the country during which he also visited Chengdu and Shanghai.
Underscoring the vitality of economic cooperation, he said, “We don’t need a martial mindset. We need an economic mindset,” and recalled the agreement with China for space technology to achieve self-sufficiency in the agriculture sector by increasing per-acre yield and water management.
President Zardari said that besides being all-weather strategic cooperative partners, Pakistan and China were “joined at the hip” too, referring to the stronger people-to-people linkages.
He said that the countries locked by neighbors could utilize their geographical location for mutual benefit creating a win-win situation.
He told the interviewer that Pakistan had always been trying to support the Chinese positions. “Wherever I go in the world, my first position is that – respect China. Give it what it deserves, the respect of the world, for its people, for its technology, for everything.”
Coming to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, President Zardari said Pakistan was the closest port to China and the port development generated jobs for youth and boosts regional growth by attracting more attention, trade, and infrastructure.
“So there is great importance for me to make sure that Balochistan is safer… We can drive down to you and you can drive down to us. So, it’s a great futuristic concept,” he remarked.
President Zardari citing great potential in China’s solar and wind expertise, and its future in hydrogen as the fuel of tomorrow, underscored bilateral cooperation in the sector.
Sharing his experience of traveling on in China’s high-speed train, he said he would take Sindh government into confidence to connect Karachi and Hyderabad with such a train to cut travel from 2.5 hours to 20 minutes, by funding 60% of the project, with China covering 40% via soft loans and running it.
About the educational cooperation, the president said he was eager to send nurses to China for training as Sindh government would fund that, providing land and buildings, and the Chinese trainers could even teach remotely, sharing China’s medical expertise.
Referring to the significance of enhanced road connectivity, he said, “Chinese are always very willing to help us, and we are very willing to help China, so we’re just hoping that this road gets better so I can interact more often and come by driving into China rather than taking the plane.”