Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had on Tuesday claimed that tensions between India and Pakistan were among the list of issues “mediated” by Beijing this year.
However, this claim has been described as “bizarre” by people familiar with the matter who said that China played no role in the ceasefire, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
India and Pakistan were involved in a four-day military conflict in May 2025 in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror attack, a month earlier, that killed 26 civilians. India retaliated with precision strike on terror camps in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
China's foreign minister Wang Yi made the mediation claim while speaking at the “Symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations” in Beijing.
“This year, local wars and cross-border conflicts flared up more often than at any time since the end of World War II. Geopolitical turbulence continued to spread,” he said.
“Following this Chinese approach to settling hotspot issues, we mediated in northern Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear issue, the tensions between Pakistan and India, the issues between Palestine and Israel, and the recent conflict between Cambodia and Thailand,” the Chinese minister said.
India has maintained since that no third party had mediated in the ceasefire between India and Pakistan after Operation Sindoor.
While there has not been any fresh official reaction from India to Wang Yi's remark yet, people in New Delhi aware of the developments told Hindustan Times that China had no part in bringing the tensions between India and Pakistan to an end in May.
“The claim by the Chinese side is bizarre,” one of the people told HT.
The HT report quoted these people saying discussions held only between senior military officials from India and Pakistan led to the agreement to stop military action on May 10. They added that New Delhi has consistently said there is no room for third-party involvement in matters concerning India and Pakistan.
“Perhaps the Chinese side is following in the footsteps of the US,” a second person told HT, pointing to US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims about mediating a truce between India and Pakistan. India has also dismissed Trump’s claim.
“We have already refuted such claims. On bilateral issues between India and Pakistan, there is no role for a third party. Our position has been clarified on several occasions in the past that the India-Pakistan ceasefire was agreed to directly between the DGMOs of the two countries," a source in the government told India Today.
Curated by Maria Santos
