On the morning of May 24, 2004, Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang met with the Joint Press Delegation from Pakistan and Afghanistan, who was visiting China at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry.

Shen said China and Pakistan and China and Afghanistan have been friendly neighbors traditionally and the peoples enjoy a long history of friendly exchanges. The Chinese government gives high priority to developing relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan and would like to join their forces to promote China-Pakistan partnership of comprehensive cooperation to a higher level and push forward the continuous development of China-Afghanistan relations in the new period.

Shen expressed his hope for the journalists to give full coverage of what they have heard and seen during this tour so as to enhance mutual understanding between China and the two countries and boost the continuous and sound development of the bilateral relations.

Shen also took questions on bilateral economic and trade cooperation, assistance to Afghanistan, China-India relations, Pakistan-India relations and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue from the journalists.

The journalists sang high praise for China-Pakistan and China-Afghanistan relations as well as the friendship between the peoples, indicating that they would like to make their contribution to the enhancement of mutual understanding.