ISLAMABAD, May 23: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday that there was no cause for alarm over India’s nuclear cooperation and defence deals with the United States. “There is nothing evil in that,” he said while answering questions after his inaugural speech at a seminar held to mark 55 years of Pakistan-China relations at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) Islamabad.

Answering a question, the prime minister said it was natural for the states sitting on the faultlines, disturbed by the emergence of China as a great power to realign themselves. He then quoted Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “Every action has equal and opposite reaction.”

China knew what was going on and was ‘well equipped’ to meet the situation, he said, adding that “the best diplomacy is quiet diplomacy”.

In his speech, the prime minister said that Pakistan-China relations were anchored in shared values and mutual advantage, served international peace and would continue to grow.

“I see much more linkages with China in the coming 10 years. We see much more cooperation in the fields of defence, space and information technology and trade.”

He praised China for becoming a great world power by dint of hard work.

“A revitalised Pakistan has also emerged as an anchor of peace and stability in the region. Pakistan is now in a position to leverage its strategic location at the crossroads of South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia to promote multi-dimensional corridors of cooperation, including oil and gas pipelines, electricity grids, transportation networks and trade relations,” he pointed out.

Asked what challenges Pakistan and China faced to further develop their bilateral ties, he said the challenge would lay in “creating new avenues and looking for new opportunities” of cooperation in changing scenarios.

In the two sessions that followed the prime minister’s speech, Chinese and Pakistani experts spoke on the relations between the two countries.

ISS chairman Enamel Haq, who has served as ambassador to China, observed that the US military presence everywhere had made it everybody’s neighbour today.

“Nato’s area of operations has also been widening,” he said, adding that India’s deals with the US were not simple and should be read in the context of the US National Security Strategy as announced in September 2004 and updated in March 2006 which co-opt India as a partner in US’ unilateral doctrines of pre-emption, regime change, control of the sealanes and ask China “to make right strategic choices”.