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BEIJING: China urged India and Pakistan on Tuesday to “exercise restraint” after New Delhi said its warplanes attacked a militant camp, in a move that sent tensions soaring between the arch-rivals over disputed Kashmir.
“We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilize the situation in the region and improve mutual relations,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.
Pakistan’s military earlier announced Indian jets had violated the Line of Control that divides Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir and dropped payloads, although it said there were no casualties.
The escalation comes in the wake of a February 14 suicide bombing that killed dozens of troops in Indian Kashmir.
New Delhi had vowed retaliation after a Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed the attack.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov in the Chinese city of Wuzhen on Wednesday for a previously planned meeting.
Wang called Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday to discuss the recent suicide attack, saying China supports Pakistan and India in efforts to resolve the issue through dialogue, state news agency Xinhua reported.
China, one of Pakistan’s closest allies, has poured billions of dollars into the South Asian country as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan.
The project is one of the largest in Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, comprising a network of roads and sea routes involving 65 countries.