Admiral Noman Bashir, Pakistan's Chief of Naval Staff, at a press conference on July 28 (CHEN RAN)

The commissioning ceremony for the first of four China-built F-22P frigates ordered by the Pakistani navy will be held on July 30 at a shipyard in Shanghai, east China.

Visiting Admiral Noman Bashir, Pakistan's Chief of Naval Staff, said on July 28 that the commissioning would mark "a big step forward" for cooperation between the two navies.

The Chinese transferred naval shipbuilding technology to Pakistan and closed a deal to build four frigates under an agreement signed in April 2005. According to the agreement, the first three frigates would be built in China, and the fourth would be built in Pakistan.

"Pakistan will look beyond the F-22P frigates and hope for more cooperation with China, whose military industry is of high quality," Bashir said.

Bashir said that the two navies have cooperated effectively in a number of fields over the past several years. The Pakistani side, he said, is willing to contribute to the further development of friendly ties between the two countries.