Our efforts defuse India-pak tensions: Chinese minister
BEIJING:CHINESE foreign minister Wang Yi on Tuesday highlighted China’s efforts in defusing tensions between India and Pakistan earlier this year as one of Beijing’s key mediation efforts of 2019 to maintain peace and stability in the neighbourhood.
Wang discussed China’s diplomacy in 2019 during an interview with People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China.
“During the India-pakistan conflict, China supported the efforts of the two sides to defuse tensions and manage differences through dialogue,” Wang, who is also one of China’s State Councillors,
said. Wang was referring to tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad which escalated in February following a terror attack on a bus carrying paramilitary troopers in Pulwama in Kashmir that killed 40 personnel. Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack.
India retaliated by conducting an airstrike on a JEM camp in Pakistan, which was followed by a dogfight between the air forces of the two countries.
China then dispatched its vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan in the first week of March to bring down the tensions. Wang himself had said that both parties should “…quickly turn the page and seek a fundamental long-term improvement in their relations”. Wang said the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, held in Chennai in October, mapped the course for better bilateral ties between the two countries.
“President Xi Jinping and
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a successful second summit in Chennai and charted the course for the steady growth of China-india relations,” he said.
The Chinese minister hailed the country’s role in world diplomacy in 2019, saying that Beijing led the world on the international diplomacy stage.
“We have spearheaded global governance and actively mediated various regional issues,” he said.
“On the complex international stage, China has become a true pillar of world peace and stability and a key engine for global development and prosperity,” he said.