China, Pak say oppose J&K ‘unilateral’ action

THE ISSUE FIGURED IN THE SECOND STRATEGIC DIALOGUE OF THE CHINESE AND PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTERS IN HAINAN ON FRIDAY

BEIJING: China has told Pakistan it opposes any “unilateral” action that complicates the situation in Kashmir, after Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi briefed his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi of his country’s concerns regarding the situation in the Indian state.

The Kashmir issue figured in the second strategic dialogue of the Chinese and Pakistani foreign ministers in the southern province of Hainan on Friday. Qureshi arrived in China on Thursday for talks against the backdrop of the India-china LAC standoff.

“The Pakistani side briefed the Chinese side on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, including its concerns, position and current urgent issues,” said a joint statement issued at the end of the twoday strategic dialogue.

“The Chinese side reiterated that the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from history between India and Pakistan, which is an objective fact, and that the dispute should be resolved peacefully and properly through the UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements. China opposes any unilateral actions that complicate the situation,” it said.

China and Pakistan believe a “peaceful, stable, cooperative and prosperous South Asia was in common interest of all parties”, the statement said. It added: “Parties need to settle disputes and issues in the region through dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect.”

There was no immediate response to the joint statement from Indian officials. India has traditionally bristled at China’s efforts to raise the Kashmir issue on Pakistan’s behalf, describing it as interference in its internal affairs. China had issued a similar statement immediately after India scrapped Kashmir’s special status in August last year. Since then, it has sought to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council on Pakistan’s behalf several times, but without much success. The dialogue between Wang and Qureshi took place at a time when the ties of both Beijing and Islamabad with New Delhi are at an all-time low, over the border tensions in eastern Ladakh, and India’s decision last year to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

The joint statement was issued soon after President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying that China and Pakistan are “good brothers” and “good partners”, and that the economic corridor between the two countries, which passes through POK, is key to forging even closer ties between Beijing and Islamabad.

In a recorded message addressed to his Pakistani counterpart Arif Alvi, Xi said the China-pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), “a landmark project” under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is of “great importance to promoting in-depth development of the China-pakistan allweather strategic cooperative partnership and forging a closer China-pakistan community with a shared future”. India has consistently opposed CPEC because it passes through POK. Beijing has paid little attention to New Delhi’s reservations about trade and transit corridor and pumped in money and resources to building infrastructure.