Beijing: China on Monday said its role in ties between India and Pakistan is to “promote peace talks” between them that will benefit all parties in the region, as Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into Islamabad on his maiden visit to boost their “all-weather” strategic ties.
China also said it will step up coordination with Pakistan on regional hotspot issues and deepen pragmatic cooperation.
“We will deepen defence cooperation with Pakistan and step up cooperation and coordination on regional hotspot issues with Pakistan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.
Asked to elaborate on the regional hotspot issues and whether it concerned India and Pakistan, Mr Hong said, “Our role in relations between India and Pakistan is to promote peace talks between the two countries and improve relations.
“This will be beneficial to the two countries and two peoples and meet the interests of all parties.”
The statement came as President Xi landed in Pakistan on a two-day state visit to boost strategic ties with its all-weather ally during which he will reach a number of deals.
“We will deepen pragmatic cooperation and make the community of common destination between China and Pakistan as good example for the neighbouring counties,” he said.
President Xi’s trip is taking place ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China next month.
Chinese officials have been maintaining that stability and security of Pakistan is important for Beijing to invest in such a big long-term project.
“We also believe that security cooperation should be moved forward as the economic cooperation because they reinforce each other,” he said when asked whether there will be a security pact during Xi’s visit to ensure the safety of Chinese projects and personnel.
China has taken a lead role in recent months to promote greater cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan as it looks to deal with increasing militancy in its Uygur Muslim majority of Xinjiang province where the Al Qaeda backed East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) has become very active.
As ETIM has carried out a number of violent attacks, Pakistan’s security forces have stepped up operations in the country’s tribal areas to crackdown on its training bases to address China’s concerns.
Also, Pakistan has created a 12,000-strong security force to protect Chinese personnel, whose numbers have gone up to 10,000, according to the official media.