Pakistan too can help in China's growth. The global economic downturn may have slowed things down but as the world emerges out of this recession and China resumes its breakneck growth, Chinese ports are going to get clogged. Given proper infrastructure, the Pakistani ports of Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar are nearer to the Chinese heartland than Shanghai and Hong Kong. Pakistan can also help channel energy supplies from the Gulf to China. Pakistan is also a sizeable country in its own right. Once we get our economic fundamentals right we can be a useful economic partner, a significant market and a profitable destination for investment.

However in the final analysis it is not just the material benefits of a relationship that determine its durability and longevity. The Pakistan-China relationship is much more than a strategic confluence of interests between two countries. The foundation of the relationship, which Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had the vision to pursue and cement, is that both countries firmly believe in the principles of sovereign equality, non-interference and bilateral cooperation. They share a close commonality of views on most international issues.

China is an anchor of stability and peace not only in Asia but the world. Its peaceful rise in a continent full of large countries each with a strong sense of identity, even destiny, bears testimony to the sagacity and wisdom of the Chinese leadership. Situated in the heart of Asia, bordering fourteen countries with Japan and the Philippines just across the Yellow and South China Seas, China is the glue holding the continent together - not only in terms of geography but in political and economic terms.

It is amongst the largest if not the largest trading partner of all the countries bordering it. Each of these countries has increasingly large stakes in China's economy and each in turn is benefiting from the traction generated by this enormous engine of growth.

China is therefore in a unique position to use these attributes to help its neighboring countries improve relations among and between themselves. For too long, Asia has been distracted by rivalries and conflicts between its many great countries. The time has come for Asia to show the world a different path where cooperation leads the way and where mutual respect and increasing bonds of trade and economic benefit help overcome hostility and suspicion.

As Pakistan grapples with the threat of terrorism, China can help in this area too. Pakistan is fighting terrorists not only for its own sake but for the entire region. We are determined not to allow the noxious fumes of this dangerous phenomenon and ideology to spread to other countries. Thousands of Pakistani citizens, civilian and military, have laid down their lives in this endeavor. Indeed terrorists have specifically targeted some of our Chinese friends who were working in Pakistan to drive a wedge between the two countries and peoples. The sacrifice of these Chinese citizens for Pakistan's cause is an abiding reminder to us Pakistanis of China's friendship with our country.

This time I will visit Wuhan and Yichang of Hubei province, and Shanghai to see for myself some of the engines that lie behind China's economic growth. I hope to learn and benefit from the opportunity. I hope that the coming days will help furnish better reminders of our enduring friendship and I hope my visit will serve as one more step in that direction.

The author Asif Ali Zardari is the President of Pakistan.

(China Daily February 23, 2009)