Asif Ali Zardari met Hu Jintao as he looked towards inking a series of agreements, including on civilian nuclear cooperation and securing a financial aid package from the "all-weather" ally.
BEIJING: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao here on Wednesday as he looked towards inking a series of agreements, including on civilian nuclear cooperation and securing a financial aid package from the "all-weather" ally.
Zardari, in his first official bilateral visit since taking office last month, was accorded a red carpet welcome by Hu at an impressive formal ceremony, including a 21 gun salute, at the Great Hall of the People.
During the visit, Beijing and Islamabad are expected to sign a possible deal on civil nuclear power cooperation. Islamabad has been striving hard to strike a comprehensive nuclear pact with Beijing after the Bush administration ruled out any such cooperation with Pakistan on the lines of the nuclear deal with India.
Pakistan already has one China-supplied reactor in operation in its Punjab province and another is under construction. It is looking to Beijing to help it build the bulk of more than 8,000 megawatts of planned nuclear electricity generating capacity.
China is also expected to provide a liberal aid package to Pakistan which is desperately seeking assistance from Western capitals to overcome a severe financial crunch brought on by higher oil and food prices.
Zardari is also expected to seek a soft loan of between USD 500 million and USD 1.5 billion from the Chinese government to help him shore up an increasingly moribund economy beset by warnings of a possible debt default, 'The Financial Times' reported.
The Times noted that the Pakistani rupee sank to an all-time low last week and Standard and Poor's, the global rating agency, downgraded the rating on Pakistan's sovereign debt to triple C-plus.
The two sides are also expected to sign several MoUs during the visit.
Zardari, who is visiting China after a gap of 24 years, has already described himself as Pakistan's "first businessman President" and highlighted the need for greater economic ties with China, a country he called "the future of the world."
"I am the first businessman President of Pakistan. So we have a lot of cultural and friendly ties, but that is not properly depicted by our economic relationship," Zardari, who took over as President last month, said.
Fiftythree-year old Zardari said he had come to cement the "all weather" economic and strategic ties with Beijing. "A strong China means a strong Pakistan," he said.
China and Pakistan describe their bilateral ties as "all weather" and Beijing is a leading source of investment and arms supplies for Islamabad. Bilateral trade between the two neighbours topped USD seven billion last year.
Zardari is accompanied by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, Advisor on Interior Rehman Malik, Media Advisor to President Farhatullah Babar, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and others.
Zardari is also was scheduled to hold talks with other top Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao and top legislator Wu Bangguo, during his visit.
Earlier, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) signed a deal on exchanges and cooperation between the two parties.
The MoU was signed by Head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee Wang Jiarui and Secretary-General of the PPP Muhammad Jehangir Bader.
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