China’s foreign minister Wang Yi (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
NEW DELHI: India has rejected China’s claim of mediation in its conflict with Pakistan, reiterating its stand that the military action was paused following a request from the Pakistani DGMO to his Indian counterpart. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi claimed on Tuesday that the crisis involving India and Pakistan were among the “hotspot issues” mediated by his country in 2025. The assertion, similar to the US President Donald Trump’s boasts of having played the peace broker in May, came as a surprise because of the time lag and the assessment here that Beijing was the undeclared participant in the4-day conflict arrayed on Pakistan’s side.Indian govt sources expressed surprise at Wang’s statement, whose country, in fact, provided crucial military assistance to Pakistan in May 7-10 conflict, and said it was as baseless as the repeated assertion of President Trump that he brokered a “ceasefire”. They emphasised that China was not part of any conversation related to the cessation of military action. India, from PM Modi downwards, has repeatedly asserted that it agreed to pause the military action after Pakistani DGMO Maj Gen Kashif Abdullah reached out to his Indian counterpart Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai. India has consistently maintained there is no place for any third-party intervention in matters related to India and Pakistan, terming them bilateral. Wang had said, “China mediated in northern Myanmar, Iranian nuclear issue, tensions between Pakistan and India, issues between Palestine and Israel, and the recent conflict between Cambodia and Thailand.” India had targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK – following the killing of civilians, mostly tourists, by terrorists in Pahalgam – as part of Opeartion Sindoor, and had then responded to the hostile neighbour’s military action.
