Post-UNSC meet, China asks India, Pak to settle disputes peacefully

New York : Zhang Jun, China's ambassador to the UN, on Friday urged India and Pakistan to settle disputes peacefully and "discard the zero-sum game mentality".

Addressing the media after the closed door talks on Kashmir at the UN Security Council, Zhang said: "We call upon relevant parties to exercise peace and not to take actions that will aggravate tensions."

Voicing his country's opposition to India creating a separate Union Territory of Ladakh after revocation of special status for Kashmir, he said: "India's actions have also challenged China's sovereign interests and violated bilateral agreements in maintaining peace and stability in the border areas, and in that China is very much concerned.

And I want to emphasise that such unilateral practice by India is not valid in relation to China, and will not change China's exercise of sovereignty and effective administrative jurisdiction over the territory."

"Both India and Pakistan are China's friendly neighbours, and both are major developing countries. Both India and Pakistan are at a crucial stage of development.

We call on the two sides to set store of the developments of peace in South Asia and discard this zero-sum game mentality and settle disputes peacefully and maintain peace and security in the region collectively and jointly," he said.

The UNSC closed-doors meeting on "India -Pakistan" was held at the insistence of China, Pakistan's all-weather ally.