China has accepted Pakistan's request to take over operations at the strategic Gwadar port after an existing agreement with the Singapore Port Authority expires, defence minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said today.
The request was made during Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s visit to China that ended yesterday. Mukhtar was part of the delegation that accompanied Gilani.
"We are grateful to the Chinese government for constructing the Gwadar port. However, we will be more grateful to the Chinese government if a naval base is constructed at the site of Gwadar for Pakistan," he said.
Mukhtar said he discussed some "important strategic and economic issues" during the Pakistani side's meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Pakistan made a request for 4,400-tonne frigates to be supplied on credit and asked the Chinese to train its personnel for operating submarines, he said.
Gilani told his Chinese counterpart that the joint programme for the JF-17 Thunder jet fighter was going on successfully but it would be a pleasure "if the People's Liberation Army will induct the aircraft in their air fleet", Mukhtar said.
This will bring a lot of publicity for the aircraft and Pakistan will be able to sell a larger quantity of the aircraft to bring down the cost of producing it, he said.
The Chinese side also "subscribed to our request to equip our air force with FC-20 aircraft", Mukhtar said.
Referring to the situation in war-torn Afghanistan, Mukhtar said Islamabad believes that a "peaceful and stable Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan and the whole region".
Pakistan supports a stable government in Kabul that "shall be Afghan-owned", he added.
"We agreed on the point that stability had to be achieved in the region by the joint efforts of Pakistan and China and by defeating terrorists in the region," Mukhtar said.
Pakistan also asked China to convey a message to the US government that Pakistan's sovereignty should be respected, he added.
