Chinese FM calls on Pakistan, India to avoid escalation of tension

SANAA, Feb. 28 (YPA) – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart, warned New Delhi and Islamabad of escalating tension.

In response to a call from Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Wang expressed “deep concern” after the fighting between Pakistani and Indian air forces.

Wang expressed the hope that the two countries would demonstrate “restraint and sincerely implement their commitment to prevent the deterioration of the situation.”

Pakistan and India on Wednesday traded accusations of dropping their fighter jets in a dangerous escalation of the standoff between the two nuclear powers, raising fears of a full-scale war between them.

To defuse the crisis, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called for talks with India, warning of possible catastrophic consequences if “logic is not arbitrated”.

China, a traditional ally of Pakistan, has hard relations with India, which has fought a bloody border war with it and faces the armies of the two countries again in the summer of 2017 in the Himalayan region.