China’s Xi Jinping urges India, Pakistan to mend ties

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday appealed to Pakistan and India to mend their ties, ruptured after the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama by a Pakistan-based terror outfit early this year.

Meeting visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and exchanging views on the situation in South Asia, Xi expressed the hope that Pakistan and India can meet each other halfway and promote stabilization and improvement in their relations, according to a Chinese government official.

Imran Khan also attended the three-day Belt and Road forum that concluded on Saturday, while India gave the summit a miss for the second time in protest against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor planned through the part of Kashmir held by Islamabad.

The meet between Xi and Khan comes at a time when the already-strained India and Pakistan’s ties have fallen to a new low after Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 Indian security personnel in February.

The issue has also caused tension between India and China as Beijing has blocked resolutions to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar a ‘global terrorist’ at the UN. China has put a “technical hold” on resolutions each time they have been moved by India, the US and other countries at the UN 1267 committee. However, officials in Beijing say the solution to the issue is in sight.