On April 18, 2007, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at the Great Hall of the People. Hu spoke highly of bilateral ties, saying that recent years have witnessed all-round, in-depth development of China-Pakistan ties and fruitful cooperation between the two countries. China-Pakistan good-neighborly friendship and strategic cooperation has entered a new stage for development, he said. China is ready to work with Pakistan to earnestly implement the agreements the two sides have inked and enhance cooperation in such areas as trade, science and technology and culture while strengthening cooperation in the traditional areas including politics, security and multilateral affairs, in order to lift all-weathered friendship and all-round cooperation to a new level, said Hu.

When talking about China-Pakistan trade cooperation, Hu said the two countries, as close neighbors, are highly complementary to each other in economy and enjoy enormous potential and broad prospects for cooperation. Both sides should bear in mind the principles of mutual benefits and common development to optimize trade mix, enlarge trade scale and make joint efforts for continued and steady growth of bilateral trade, said Hu. The two countries should also adopt various approaches, enhance cooperation between the enterprises and explore new cooperative fields and ways while consolidating the existing cooperation achievements, suggested Hu. He also urged both sides to encourage mutual investment from their business communities to upgrade the level of cooperation.

Aziz said President Hu's successful visit to Pakistan last year has strongly pushed for the development of the strategic cooperative partnership and made a wonderful and deep impression on the Pakistani government and its people. During his current visit, Aziz said he and the Chinese side reached new consensus on strengthening cooperation and signed a range of cooperation agreements, which helps enrich bilateral friendly cooperative ties. Aziz said Pakistan is confident of the prospects of trade cooperation between the two countries and will strive to expand bilateral trade and scale of two-way investment and encourage mutually beneficial cooperation between businesses of both countries.

Both sides also exchanged views on reconstruction in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear issue and the regional situation. Aziz pledged Pakistan will continue to work with India to solve their unsettled problems through dialogue and negotiations. China sincerely hopes that Pakistan and India will maintain the momentum of dialogue, build mutual trust and jointly improve bilateral ties in a bid to promote peace, stability and development in the South Asian region, said Hu.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and other officials attended the meeting.