China, Pakistan vow to enhance parliamentary exchanges

BEIJING: China and Pakistan today vowed to strengthen parliamentary exchanges to promote development of their strategic partnership.

The pledge came out of a meeting between top legislator Zhang Dejiang and Chairman of the Pakistani Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, who is on his first China visit since taking office.

The National People's Congress ( NPC), China's top legislative body, is ready to conduct closer exchanges with Pakistan's Senate on national governance and legislative development to create better legal conditions for bilateral cooperation, Zhang was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Zhang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said the two sides should maintain their friendly relations and promote sustainable development of their ties.

Rabbani praised the development of bilateral ties and said the Senate will strengthen communication and exchanges with the NPC.

The two countries stepped up their strategic engagement after Beijing's move to implement USD 46 billion economic corridor connecting China's Xinjiang with Pakistan's Gwadar port covering a distance of about 3,000-km passing through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.