Beijing: Pakistan, a close ally of China, has welcomed as "positive" the recent thaw in Sino-Indian relations and is not perturbed by this development and emerging new equation in Asia.

"Recently there has been greater interaction between India and China and we feel that is a positive development," Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmud Kasuri said in an interview to the BBC.

"We don't worry at all. The best test of that is not what you say or I say, but what the Chinese say," Kasuri said ahead of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's meetings with the new Chinese leadership later today (Nov 3).

"The Chinese say our relationship is one of a kind, so why should we be worried?" he quipped.

"China is a very close friend of Pakistan," he said referring to the rock-solid 'all weather' ties enjoyed between the two close allies.

Musharraf's visit to Beijing comes five months after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's groundbreaking visit, the first by an Indian head of Government in over a decade.

PTI