NPC to approve Sino-Pak friendship treaty next week

China's top legislature, Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) during its six-day session, to be started here on Tuesday, will consider and approve a treaty of friendship with Pakistan.
Official sources told APP in Beijing that the NPC would consider a heavy agenda, including the Sino-Pak friendship treaty that was signed by Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad in April this year.
Chinese State Council (cabinet) will formally present the treaty before the NPC for its formal consideration and approval.
"We consider the treaty as an important document further consolidating strategic partnership between the two traditional allies," the sources said, adding, "the treaty envisages a clear and unambiguous, categorical assurance by the Chinese government to defend Pakistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity."
Under the treaty, both countries are committed to support each other's efforts to safeguard their territorial integrity. It encapsulated the successful experience of bilateral relations in more than half a century and charted the course for future development.
The treaty says to strengthen the overall good-neighbourly friendship and mutually beneficial co-operation between the contracting parties is not only in the fundamental interest of the two countries and the two nations, but also conducive to regional and global peace, stability and development.
JOINT DECLARATION: It reaffirms that the Joint Declaration between China and Pakistan signed by President Hu Jintao and President Pervez Musharraf in 2003 is of guiding significance to deepening the bilateral relationship.
Under the treaty, the two countries will actively develop and consolidate the bilateral strategic partnership of good-neighbourly friendship and mutually beneficial co-operation in accordance with the universally recognised principles and norms of international law and on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
Both sides agreed to maintain a regular high-level strategic dialogue. They will adhere to the principle of non-encroachment on national territories and boundaries in international law and strictly observe the boundary agreements between the two countries.
They resolved to maintain lasting peace and friendship for generations to come in the border areas between the two countries.