President Hu Jintao on Friday sent a congratulatory message to his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf on the 51st anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

In the message, President Hu said that the industrious and ingenious Pakistani people have made brilliant achievements since the founding of their republic in 1956.

The Pakistani people, appropriately dealing with various challenges in the volatile domestic and international situation in the new century, have made fresh achievements in maintaining national stability, accelerating economic growth, improving people's living standards and promoting South Asia's peace and stability, said Hu.

China and Pakistan are good neighbors, and the two peoples have enjoyed profound traditional friendship, Hu said, adding that with the Sino-Pakistani ties forging ahead vigorously, cooperation between the two countries has reaped abundant fruits in various fields.

Hu said that in the exchange of visits by the two country's heads of state last year, he and President Musharraf reached a wide-ranging consensus on advancing the China-Pakistan strategic partnership, which indicated that the bilateral ties had entered a fresh development stage.

The Chinese government pursues a good-neighborly diplomatic policy of "building friendship and partnership with neighboring countries," cherishes the traditional friendship between the two countries, said Hu.

Hu said that China is willing to work together with Pakistan to strengthen bilateral good-neighborly relations, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, expedite common development and continuously push the strategic partnership to a new high, so as to benefit the two countries and the two peoples.

Also on Friday, Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing delivered messages of congratulations respectively to their Pakistani counterparts Shaukat Aziz and Khurshid Kasuri.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2007)