Ties would 'never rust'
China reassures unnerved Pakistan ahead of Xi's meeting with Modi over Indo-Sino rapprochement effort
China yesterday reassured Pakistan that relations between the two countries were as firm as ever and would "never rust", ahead of a meeting this week between President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that could unnerve Islamabad.
China and Pakistan like to call each other "all weather friends" and their traditional close ties have long been viewed with suspicion by Pakistan's neighbour and traditional enemy, India.
But Modi has tried to reset relations with Beijing after a years of disagreements over everything from their border to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and will hold an informal summit with Xi on Friday and Saturday in China.
China will continue to firmly support Pakistan, its top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif at a meeting in Beijing.
"We are ready to work together with our Pakistani brothers to undertake the historical mission of national rejuvenation and achieve the great dream of national prosperity and development," Wang said.
"In this way, our iron friendship with Pakistan will never rust and be tempered into steel."
There was no mention of the Xi-Modi meeting in comments made in front of reporters.
"It will be an important occasion for them (Modi and Xi) to exchange views on bilateral and international matters, from an overarching and long-term perspective with the objective of enhancing mutual communication," Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday.
China and India were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of that boundary last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.
The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers in the Himalayas underscored Indian alarm at China's expanding security and economic links in South Asia.
China's ambitious Belt and Road initiative of transport and energy links bypasses India, apart from a corner of the disputed Kashmir region, also claimed by Pakistan, but involves India's neighbours Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives.