After China, Türkiye help Pakistan, India asks both to be mindful of its sensitivities

New Delhi: China and Türkiye should be mindful of the sensitivities of India and ask Pakistan to end its support to terrorism, New Delhi underlined in a not-so-subtle message to Beijing and Ankara on Thursday.

After Pakistan used Chinese and Turkish weapons against India during the recent cross-border flare-up between the two South Asian nations, New Delhi conveyed its displeasure to both nations.

“We expect Türkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told journalists in New Delhi. “Relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other’s concerns.”

His comment came after officials of the armed forces in New Delhi recently confirmed that Pakistan used Axisguard Songar drones made in Türkiye to target civilian and military installations in India during the cross-border flare-up between the two South Asian nations between May 7 and 10.

Türkiye sent a warship and military cargo planes to Pakistan after the April 22 carnage in J&K escalated tension between the two South Asian neighbours.

The officials of the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force also confirmed that Pakistan had even fired PL-15 missiles made in China at targets in India. China also purportedly provided satellite support to Pakistan to choose targets in India and to neutralise India’s counterattacks.

India’s air defence systems, however, neutralised both Turkish drones and Chinese missiles fired by Pakistan.

The Chinese side is aware that mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity remain the basis of India-China relations,” the MEA spokesperson said.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval spoke to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on May 10 – the day India and Pakistan agreed to halt the cross-border military offensives and counter-offensives. Doval conveyed to Wang India’s resolute stance against cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

The relations between New Delhi and Beijing were on the mend since the four-and-a-half-year-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh had come to its end in October 2024.

But the bilateral ties again came under a shadow, with Beijing extending its support to Islamabad after India-Pakistan tensions escalated in the wake of the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Even before India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan as well as areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan, China vowed to support its “all-weather ally” Pakistan in “safeguarding its territorial integrity and sovereignty”.

Beijing also supported Islamabad’s call for an impartial probe into the killing of 26 people at Baisaran near Pahalgam in J&K, although The Resistance Force, an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the latest carnage in India.

New Delhi, however, rejected Islamabad’s call for a neutral and international probe, terming it just a delaying tactic.