China yet to react to escalation in India-Pakistan military conflict

Beijing: China kept a wary watch on the evolving situation following India’s airstrikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan, its all-weather ally.

While its official media on Wednesday carried reports from both New Delhi and Islamabad on the airstrikes, there is no official comment here yet.

The Foreign Ministry’s media briefing is due to take place in the afternoon, around 3 PM.

The escalation following the Pahalgam terrorist attack came as Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to leave for Russia on a four-day visit on Wednesday to take part in the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Soviet Union in World War II.

Xi is also due to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he shares a close personal friendship.

Since the Pahalgam terrorist attack, China, Pakistan's “ironclad ally”, while condemning it, has called for restraint, besides a fair and swift investigation into the attack.

The two countries also stepped up diplomatic contacts during the past few days.

While, Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called China's top diplomat Wang Yi over phone and briefed him on April 27.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari.

In his talks with Dar, Wang while stating that China is closely following the developments stressing that combating terrorism is a shared responsibility of the whole world said China supports an impartial investigation as soon as possible, as the conflict does not serve the fundamental interests of either India or Pakistan, nor does it contribute to regional peace and stability.

“As an ironclad friend and an all-weather strategic cooperative partner, China fully understands Pakistan's legitimate security concerns and supports Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty and security interests”, Wang said.