China | Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India is vigilant of developments in its neighbourhood that “have a bearing” on its “interest and security”, the external affairs ministry said of a recent trilateral meeting between Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, adding that it factors in the “evolving context” in its bilateral relations with these countries. According to The Wire, during a trilateral meeting in Kunming, China, on June 19 involving Chinese vice foreign minister Sun Weidong, Bangladesh’s acting foreign secretary Ruhul Siddique and Pakistan’s additional foreign secretary Imran Siddiqui, the three sides agreed to explore cooperation in a number of sectors including trade, ‘maritime affairs’, health and the environment. Asked for comment on the meeting during the ministry’s weekly press briefing on Thursday, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that “we maintain a constant watch on the developments in our neighbourhood that have a bearing on our interest and our security”. “Our relations with individual countries, while they stand on th...

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart that the two countries should seek a “permanent solution” to their decades-old border dispute, India’s defence ministry said on Friday. Singh met China’s Dong Jun on the sidelines of the meeting of the defence ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Qingdao on Thursday and stressed on solving issues between the two countries through a structured roadmap, the ministry said in a statement. The world’s two most populous nations — both nuclear powers — share a 3,800-km, largely undemarcated and disputed border in the Himalayas and have gone to war over it. Although the frontier has been mostly peaceful in recent decades, a deadly clash between their troops in 2020 resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. The clash led to a four-year military standoff with both armies deploying tens of thousands of troops in the mountains until they reached a pact in October to step back, leading to a thaw in ties. During h...

Defence ministers attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting on Thursday failed to reach a consensus on a joint statement due to India’s refusal, while Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif reaffirmed the country’s commitment to combating terrorism and promoting regional peace and security within the SCO framework. The SCO is a 10-nation Eurasian security and political grouping whose members include China, Russia, Pakistan, India, and Iran. Their defence ministers’ meeting was held as a precursor to the annual summit of its leaders set for the autumn. Addressing the session, Asif condemned Israel’s recent 12-day war against Iran and stressed the importance of collective efforts to address evolving global and regional security challenges, state broadcaster PTV News reported. “Terrorism is a common threat. Pakistan calls on all states to desist from politicising the joint effort of the International Community to fight the means of terrorism to deflect attention from their internal failures...

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday, against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending. Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science. The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes. It is also being held the day after a summit of Nato leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy United States President Donald Trump. Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight. China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although ...

United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that China can continue to purchase Iranian oil after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, a move that the White House clarified did not indicate a relaxation of US sanctions. “China can now continue to purchase oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the US, also,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, just days after he ordered US bombings of three Iranian nuclear sites. Trump was drawing attention to no attempts by Iran so far to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, as a closure would have been hard for China, the world’s top importer of Iranian oil, a senior White House official told Reuters. “The president continues to call on China and all countries to import our state-of-the-art oil rather than import Iranian oil in violation of US sanctions,” the official said. After the ceasefire announcement, Trump’s comments on China were another bearish signal for oil prices, which fell nearly 6 per cent on Tuesday. Any relaxation o...

UNITED NATIONS, June 22: The U.N Security Council (UNSC) met on Sunday to discuss U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East. It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a […]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, China and Bangladesh have launched a trilateral cooperation mechanism, pledging to pursue “win-win cooperation” in what could mark a subtle yet significant shift in South Asia’s strategic landscape. The announcement came after the inaugural meeting of the Bangladesh-China-Pakistan Vice Foreign Minister/Foreign Secretary mechanism on Friday. A statement issued by the Foreign Office said the meeting was attended by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, Bangladesh’s acting Foreign Secretary Ruhul Alam Siddique and Pakistan’s Additional Foreign Secretary Imran Ahmed Siddiqui. Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch joined the initial session via video link. New trilateral forum looks to enhance engagement, work for more trade, investment In her remarks, Ms Baloch expressed Pakistan’s desire for a deeper engagement between China and South Asian countries. She highlighted the “upward trajectory of bilateral ties” with both China and Bangladesh and “conveyed Pakistan’s readiness to work with the two ...

China’s nuclear arsenal has grown faster than that of any other country, reaching an estimated 600 warheads by early 2025, adding momentum to the global arms race and raising strategic concerns, an international security think tank said on Monday. The country’s nuclear stockpile has been expanding by roughly 100 warheads per year since 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said in its Sipri Yearbook 2025, warning that a new and dangerous nuclear arms race is taking shape amid a widespread weakening of arms control frameworks. According to the report, by January this year, China built or nearly completed around 350 new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos and could have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or the United States by the turn of the decade. The report, however, said that even if China reaches 1,500 warheads by 2035, this would still represent only about a third of each of the current Russian and US stockpiles. Beijing said it follows a nuclear strategy th...

India and China have agreed to expedite the resumption of direct air services and step up communication, the two countries’ foreign ministries said on Friday, as Beijing and New Delhi continue to mend bilateral ties. The ministries’ statements came after a meeting on Thursday of Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, who is visiting India. The two countries reached an agreement in October regarding patrolling along their Himalayan border, thawing a standoff that began in 2020 and had strained bilateral ties, impacting areas from trade to technology to air travel. Sun said in the meeting that the two sides should properly handle disputes and differences, and jointly play a constructive role in maintaining international and regional peace and stability, according to the Chinese ministry’s statement. The two sides agreed to continue to stabilise and rebuild ties, the Indian ministry’s statement said. In January, the neighbours agreed to work on resolving trade and ec...

United States and Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove Beijing’s export restrictions on rare earths while offering little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade differences. At the end of two days of intense negotiations in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the framework deal puts “meat on the bones” of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels. But the Geneva deal had faltered over China’s continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls of its own preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, aircraft and other goods to China. Lutnick said the agreement reached in London would remove some of the recent US export restrictions, but did not provide details after the talks concluded around midnight London time (4am PKT). “We have reached a fra...

China and the United States began a new round of trade talks in London on Monday, Beijing’s state media reported, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to shore up a shaky truce after bruising tit-for-tat tariffs. The two sides are meeting in the historic Lancaster House, run by the UK Foreign Office, following a first round of talks in Geneva last month. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng was again heading the team in London. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported the start of the talks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are leading the US delegation, President Donald Trump said on Friday. “The meeting should go very well,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News on Sunday: “We want China and the United States to continue moving forward with the agreement that was struck in Geneva.” While the UK government reiterated that it was not involved in the discussions, a spokesperson sai...

China called on Friday for steps to improve bilateral ties with Canada, saying there were no deepseated conflicts of interest, following a spike in trade tensions with many of Beijing’s Western trade partners this year. China is willing to work with Canada to put ties on a healthy and stable path and find solutions to address each other’s concerns through enhanced dialogue, Premier Li Qiang told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a phone call on Friday, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. “There is no fundamental conflict of interests between the two countries,” Li said. Li’s talks with Carney followed a highly-anticipated phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, which Trump said led to “a very positive conclusion” and offered hope the trade war between the world’s two largest economies might start to de-escalate. As the effects of trade frictions start to make their way into the already soft Chinese economy, Beijing has stepped up engagement wi...

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday called his telephone conversation with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a “very good phone call” and stated that the countries’ respective teams “will be meeting shortly”. Earlier, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported that the call took place at Trump’s request, as bilateral relations have been strained by trade disputes. In a post on social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote that the one and a half hour call discussed the “intricacies of the trade deal” and that it “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries”. “There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of rare earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,” the president wrote, adding that the US will be represented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The post added that Xi “graciously invited” both Trump and First Lady Melania to visit...

Beijing hit back on Wednesday at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for saying the world will “never forget” the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, describing his remarks as an “attack” on China. Troops and tanks forcibly cleared peaceful protesters from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, after weeks-long demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms. The exact toll is unknown, but hundreds died, with some estimates exceeding 1,000. China’s communist rulers have since sought to erase any public mention of the crackdown, with censors scrubbing all online references. Police were seen by AFP on Wednesday at the entrance to Wan’an Cemetery, a site in west Beijing where victims of the crackdown are known to be buried. Officers were also posted at several intersections leading into Tiananmen Square. On Wednesday evening, a line of buses and a cherry picker partially blocked screens at the German and Canadian embassies showing images of candles, a symbol commonly used to pay tribute to Tiananme...

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth warned on Saturday that China was “credibly preparing” to use military force to upend the balance of power in Asia, vowing the United States was “here to stay” in the region. The Pentagon chief made the remarks at an annual security forum in Singapore as the administration of US President Donald Trump spars with Beijing on trade, technology, and influence over strategic corners of the globe. China’s embassy in Singapore blasted the speech, accusing Washington of escalating tensions in the region and “profiting from creating risks of war”. Trump has launched a trade war with China since taking office in January, has sought to curb its access to key AI technologies and deepened security ties with allies such as the Philippines, which is engaged in escalating territorial disputes with Beijing. “The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent,” Hegseth said at the Shangri-La Dialogue attended by defence officials from around the world. Beijing is “credibly preparing to...

Pakistan, China vow to make joint strides for regional peace.

Pakistan and China have reiterated their firm resolve to make joint strides for regional peace and stability.

Pakistan became a co-signatory to China’s newly set up Hong Kong-based International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed) on Friday, a statement by the Foreign Office said. China signed a convention setting up an international organisation for mediation in Hong Kong that Beijing hopes will be on par with the International Court of Justice and bolster the city’s international credentials, Reuters reported. Pakistan, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and Serbia were among the countries attending the signing ceremony, while representatives from 20 international bodies, including the United Nations, were also expected to join, public broadcaster RTHK said. “Deputy Prime Minister [and] Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, today signed, on behalf of Pakistan, the convention on the establishment of the International Organisation for Mediation in Hong Kong,” the statement by the FO read. Speaking on the occasion, Dar appreciated the Chinese leadership for its wisdom in developing and consistently leading efforts in es...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that trade negotiations with China were “a bit stalled” and suggested President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could get involved. “I would say that they are a bit stalled,” Bessent told broadcaster Fox News when asked about trade talks with Beijing. “I believe that we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks, and I believe we may, at some point, have a call between the president and party chair Xi,” he said. The world’s two biggest economies agreed this month to pause reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, a surprise de-escalation in their bitter trade war following talks between top officials in Geneva. Under the May 12 truce, Washington agreed to temporarily reduce the tariff on Chinese imports to 30 per cent from 145pc, while China said it would lower its import duty on American goods to 10pc from 125pc. “I think that given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity, that this is going to require both leaders to weig...

ISLAMABAD - China on Tuesday announced a major step to foster stronger bilateral relations with Pakistan by opening new employment avenues for Pakistani youth.