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Martin Choi

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing is committed to improving ties with New Delhi, as a terror attack in Kashmir threatens to undo recent diplomatic progress.
Wang also called on India and Pakistan to hold dialogue in an effort to maintain regional peace and prevent tensions from worsening.
“China is concerned with the tense situation facing South Asia,” Wang said in a meeting with Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.
“As a mutual friend to India and Pakistan, China hopes both sides can exercise restraint to avoid an escalation of tensions.”

Wang and Swaraj met on the sidelines of trilateral talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.
The meeting in eastern China came amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan closes airspace ‘until further notice’, airports shut in India, as tensions escalate
Both sides have ordered air strikes over the last two days – the first time that two nuclear-armed powers have done so – while ground forces have exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations.
Pakistan shot down two Indian Air Force planes in its airspace in Kashmir on Wednesday, a military spokesman said, adding that one Indian pilot had been captured.


The Press Trust of India reported that Pakistani fighter planes crossed at Poonch and Nowshera, two locations on the Indian side of the de facto border, but were repelled.
The incursion over the heavily militarised Line of Control came a day after Indian warplanes carried out a strike in Pakistan on what New Delhi said was a militant training camp, in retaliation for a February 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.


The attack has prompted renewed criticism in India over New Delhi’s approach to improving ties with Beijing. The two countries have often had flare-ups on their disputed border but a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year was said to have “reset” relations.
Following the attack – for which Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility – there have been calls for a tougher stance on China. For years, India has blamed China for blocking its effort to have the group’s founder, Masood Azhar, listed as a terrorist – a position most analysts say stems from Beijing’s allegiance to Islamabad.
What ‘Wuhan spirit’? Kashmir suicide attack reopens Modi’s China wound
But Wang said China saw its ties with India as important and that the meeting between Xi and Modi had given bilateral relations new impetus.
“Both nations should prepare for high-level exchanges and activities celebrating the 70th anniversary of the relationship, and expand cooperation,” Wang said in the meeting, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. “Both sides should properly manage their disputes to push forward the development of China-India relations.”


According to a joint communique of their meeting from India’s foreign ministry, Wang, Swaraj and Lavrov “strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations … while respecting sovereignty and independence of all states”.
“They also stressed that terrorist groups cannot be supported and used in political and geopolitical goals,” the communique said.
Kashmir conflict explained: what brought Pakistan, India to the brink of war?
After the attack by Indian warplanes on Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the country’s armed forces and people to “remain prepared for all eventualities”, according to India’s NDTV.
Khan chaired a special meeting of the country’s National Security Committee, which “concluded that India has committed uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing”, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters


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Indian soldiers and Kashmiri onlookers stand near the remains of an Indian Air Force plane after it crashed in Budgam district, some 30km from Srinagar, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during the opening of a new Chinese Embassy in the Dominican Republic, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, September 21, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas/File Photo

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also tells Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj that Beijing is committed to improving ties with New Delhi
It comes as India and Pakistan clash over the disputed Kashmir region


Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also tells Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj that Beijing is committed to improving ties with New Delhi.


India

Pakistan

Kashmir