Pakistan and China deepen bonds: Launch of satellites, airport at Gwadar

Beijing: Pakistan and China have signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding that are slated to 're-energise' already existing strong bilateral cooperation in various fields, including defence, space technology and trade and economics.

According to Pakistani prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, he and his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, had discussed nuclear cooperation but he declined to divulge any details. He was speaking to reporters at a news conference here on Tuesday.

The prime minister said that of the 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding signed, 14 were in the public sector and 13 in the private sector.

Aziz mentioned that he had held a 40-minute one-to-one meeting with his counterpart, Wen Jiabao, followed by hour-long delegation-level discussions, in which both sides agreed to strengthen their relations in the fields of defence, security, space technology, investment, trade, banking, construction of dams and energy and infrastructure development.

The prime minister said that the Chinese National Space Administration and Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) had signed a framework on deepening cooperation in space science and technology. Pakistan's ambassador Salman Bashir also said the two sides had agreed to jointly launch a satellite, Paksat IR, for communication purposes and an earth observation satellite later.

Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority and the China Harbour Engineering Corporation also signed an MOU for the construction of an airport at Gwadar at a cost of $100 million.