Beijing, August 24
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar today said her country has “no interest” in allowing its territory to be used by non-state actors against its neighbours.

“We have made it clear to our neighbours and we make it clear again that Pakistan has no interest for its territory to be used by any non-state actors against any other country, “ Khar, who is on her maiden visit to China, said.

Her statement comes after China initially blamed militants trained in Pakistan-based terror camps for recent attacks in its restive Xinjiang province.

“Pakistan just seeks the world’s understanding for the current challenges that Pakistan is going through...we are the ones and our people are the ones that are paying the price, who are experiencing the brunt of it,” Khar told reporters here after her meetings with Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Khar said Pakistan was increasing its counter-terrorism cooperation with China. “Terrorism today knows no borders... the statement vis-a-vis Pakistan involvement (issued earlier by local Chinese government blaming Pakistan based terror camps) of any sort was misconstrued,” Khar said.

“We respond to that by increasing cooperation. Pakistan is already cooperating. We must make this even more robust,” she said responding to questions over China’s rare allegation that militants of the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), who carried out attacks in Kashghar in Xinjiang province, were trained at Pakistan-based terror camps.

The 34-year-old Khar, who arrived here last night, wound up the visit after her meetings with Wen and Yang. Her visit surprisingly got little play in the Chinese official media today.

During his meeting with Khar, Wen reaffirmed China’s support for Pakistan’s efforts in preserving national stability and promoting social and economic development.

He called on the two sides to promote the sustainable development of the Pakistani economy and to expand cooperation in trade, investment and technology, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Later she held talks with her Chinese counterpart Yang, who pledged to further promote bilateral ties hailing the China-Pakistan relationship as a “high-quality strategic cooperative partnership”.

Yang and Khar also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern.

Khar said developing friendly relations with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy and that her government and all sectors of society agree on cementing their traditional friendship. She thanked China for its support to Pakistan in social and economic development.

She said Pakistan hopes to make joint efforts with China to enhance cooperation in various fields, including energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and finance, and to further promote the strategic cooperative partnership of Pakistan and China.

Her visit comes ahead of proposed visit of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to take see the trade fair at Xinjiang in the coming weeks. — PTI