On May 12, Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar met Premier Zhu Rongji at the Presidential Palace. Tarar warmly welcomed Zhu's delegation to Pakistan. He said that Zhu's visit has brought an atmosphere of happiness and harmony to Pakistan. The friendship for the past 50 years between Pakistan and China was based on mutual trust and understanding and the friendly, trustful and cooperative relations between the two countries have become a model of state-to-state relations. Such relations are not only beneficial to the two countries and two peoples, but also conducive to the promotion of regional peace and security. The Pakistani people are grateful to the support and assistance provided by China in decades. The friendly relations and cooperation between Pakistan and China benefit the two countries and peoples and also conduce to regional peace and security.

Zhu conveyed President Jiang Zemin's greetings to Tarar and renewed Jiang's invitation to him for a visit to China within this year.

Zhu thanked the Pakistani government and people for their hospitality. He said that upon setting his foot on the soil of Pakistan, I felt greatly the amity between Pakistan and China as well as the deep-rooted friendship between the two peoples. He referred to the constructive and effective talks between him and Pakistani Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf, during which the two sides reached consensus on further strengthening bilateral cooperation, especially in the economic and trade fields, so as to achieve more progress in the new century.

He said the Chinese government attaches significant importance to relations with Pakistan which it regarded as an intimate partner and friendly neighbor. Tarar once praised China-Pakistan friendship higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, and sweeter than honey in one of his poems, which is an in-depth summary of China-Pakistan relationship. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. As the bilateral relations of trust and cooperation were time- tested, he believed the comprehensively cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan would bear more development in the new century.

Tarar thanked President Jiang for his invitation. He asked Zhu to convey his good greetings to Jiang and wished China prosperity and its people well-being.