China and Pakistan sign free-trade deal

Chinese President Hu Jintao, visiting his country’s staunchest ally in Asia, signed a free-trade deal here Friday and pledged to continue helping Pakistan build its civilian nuclear program.

But the Chinese leader stopped short of announcing the wide-ranging nuclear cooperation deal that many observers had expected him to unveil as a counterweight to a similar accord being hammered out between the United States and India, Pakistan’s archrival.

Beijing already has supplied Islamabad with one nuclear reactor and is helping build a second at Chashma, in Punjab province. Pakistan is increasingly looking to nuclear sources as its energy needs grow in step with its expanding economy.

“We will continue to carry out such cooperation,” Hu told reporters at a news conference here, during the first visit to Pakistan by a Chinese president in a decade.

Hu arrived in the Pakistani capital Thursday as part of a weeklong tour of South Asia that began with a four-day visit to India. China’s communist government is eager to expand its political influence in the region and to improve its access to the area’s abundant natural resources, including metals and natural gas.

Islamabad and Beijing have a long-standing “all-weather” friendship, based partly on a shared antagonism toward New Delhi.

Pakistan rolled out the red carpet for Hu, who was accorded the privilege Friday of addressing the country directly in a nationally televised speech. Relations between China and Pakistan, Hu said, were “higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the Indian Ocean and sweeter than honey.”

China is Pakistan’s chief arms supplier, and the nations signed a preliminary agreement for Beijing to outfit its ally with airborne early-warning systems.

But Hu’s vaguely worded announcement of further collaboration regarding civilian nuclear energy probably was a disappointment for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Islamabad had hoped China would commit to building as many as six more nuclear reactors.

Such an agreement would have served to counterbalance an accord, overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. Senate last week, that would allow American companies to sell nuclear fuel and technology to India, despite New Delhi’s long-standing refusal to join the global Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Islamabad repeatedly has been rebuffed when seeking similarly favorable treatment from Washington. Last week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in New Delhi that an exemption for India was warranted because of its “good track record” on nonproliferation and that those conditions did not exist elsewhere. He was referring to Pakistan, whose former chief nuclear scientist has admitted sharing information with Libya and North Korea.

As it was, Hu’s pledge to continue civilian nuclear cooperation here did not appear to offer much more than the promise he gave India on Tuesday.

However, he got a free-trade agreement with Pakistan, a move India has rejected for fear unleashing of a flood of cheap goods. Officials in Beijing and Islamabad hope trade between their countries, which amounted to slightly more than $4 billion last year, can swell to $15 billion in five years.

“I am sure the free-trade agreement that we have signed with China will quadruple our trade and will give a boost to investments in Pakistan,” Musharraf said. “We also look forward to the Chinese private sector taking advantage of the opportunities offered by Pakistan’s vibrant and reformed economy.”

Hu is scheduled to go on to the city of Lahore today before departing Pakistan on Sunday.

henry.chu@latimes.com

Times staff writer Chu reported from New Delhi and special correspondent Zaidi from Islamabad.