ISLAMABAD, President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday said that Pakistan-China strategic mutual trust must be sustained and reinforced with continued high-level exchanges, stronger people-to-people contacts and deeper economic cooperation.

In a meeting with Dr Syed Ali Asad Gilani, Pakistan’s ambassador-designate to China, who called on him at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president stressed that the relationship with China remained the most consequential aspect of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

He called for translating the strong political goodwill between the two countries into greater economic and industrial integration.

He welcomed the focus on Business-to-Business cooperation under CPEC 2.0 and emphasised cooperation in modern agriculture, artificial intelligence and new technologies, particularly for skills development and job creation for youth.

President Zardari asked the ambassador-designate to maintain proactive engagement with Chinese government institutions, the CPC leadership, think tanks, academia and media, and to promote people-to-people ties, including student exchanges.

The president said that he also looked forward to President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan for the SCO Summit next year.

Senator Saleem Mandviwalla was also present during the meeting.