China has extended support in fighting terror to India during the bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the foreign ministry said today. Amid India’s stand-off with the US over tariffs, the two leaders had also exchanged views on ways to increase trade, establish peace at the border and strengthen people-to-people ties.
“All I will say without going into specifics is the issue was discussed, raised by the Prime Minister. He outlined his understanding very crisply and specifically. He outlined the fact that this is the scourge that India and China are both victims of,” foreign secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.
“He asked for China’s support on this issue — the Chinese have expressed their support,” he said.
“The Prime Minister did mention cross-border terrorism as a priority. He underlined the fact that this is something that affects both India and China, and therefore it is important that we give understanding and support to each other as we both combat cross-border terrorism,” Mr Misri said.
“I would actually like to say that there has been a lot of understanding and cooperation from the Chinese side on this issue. We have dealt with the issue of cross-border terrorism in the context of the ongoing SCO summit,” he added.
As the all-weather ally of Pakistan, China had initially not mentioned Pahalgam in the joint statement at the SCO meet in June and India had refused to sign it. Instead of mentioning the April 22 attack on Kashmir’s Pahalgam, China had mentioned incidents in Balochistan in the statement instead, tacitly suggesting Indian involvement.
But following the imposition of US President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff on India – 25 per cent reciprocal tariff and 25 per cent over India’s purchase of Russian oil – India and China have hit reset on bilateral relations and the dragon and the elephant have been matching steps.
Today the foreign ministry said PM Modi had noted that India and China both pursue strategic autonomy, and their ties should not be seen through a “third country lens”.
PM Modi and President Xi considered it necessary to expand common ground on bilateral, regional, and global issues and challenges, like terrorism, the ministry said.
For China, a possibility of the emergence of Islamic terror is simmering at Xinjiang of East Turkistan. In various official statements, China has called them terrorist forces.
The threat of terror has also increased for Chinese nationals living overseas as China’s global footprint expands. With this, there has been a slight shift in Beijing’s cautious approach to terror
At the Shanghai Cooperation Summit tomorrow, PM Modi will come face to face with Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif – a first since the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
This is PM Modi’s first in-person attendance at the SCO Summit in three years. In 2023, India hosted the SCO, but the summit was held online, while in 2024, Mr. Modi skipped the summit in Kazakhstan.
