Describing India and Pakistan as its important neighbours, China today said the two countries should engage in "friendly consultations" to resolve the Kashmir issue and strengthen their cooperation for peace and stability in South Asia.
China regarded both India and Pakistan as important neighbours and friends, foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told reporters, replying to questions on Indo-Pak ties.
"We hope the two can strengthen cooperation and exchanges to improve relations, which is important for peace and stability in South Asia," she said.
"As for territorial dispute of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, we hold that two sides should engage in friendly consultations and resolve the issue," Jiang said.
Both India and Pakistan are China's "friendly neighbours" and "we sincerely hope that the two countries can co-exist in a friendly manner and jointly contribute to peace and development," she said without directly responding to a question on New Delhi's charges that Pakistan harboured militant outfits planning terrorist attacks against India.
Apparently hesitant to take questions on Indo-Pak ties as Premier Wen Jiabao is currently on a visit to New Delhi, Jiang pointed to Wen's yesterday's remarks that India and China are partners rather than competitors and his emphasis that the two should focus on their complementarities to seek common development.
Wen, who held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, is scheduled to visit Pakistan from tomorrow on a three-day trip to hold wide-ranging consultations with its leadership, with whom China enjoyed all-weather relations.
Ahead of Wen's visit to Islamabad, Pakistan's ambassador to China, Masood Khan, said Islamabad expects Beijing to play a "bigger role" in persuading India to hold a sustainable dialogue with it to resolve Kashmir and other issues.
"We hope China will, over time, be able to persuade India to have sustainable dialogue with Pakistan for the resolution of all outstanding issues, including Kashmir," he told state-run Global Times.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country is "anxiously waiting" for the visit of Wen.
"It is not only about government-to-government contacts with China, it is also people-to-people contacts," Gilani said in an interview to China's official Xinhua news agency.
Gilani said Wen's visit will focus on the strategic partnership, economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people contacts.
