(ET)
Days after India ruled out a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit this week, China has tried to play facilitator and suggested that India should reciprocate Khan’s peace missive and enter into a dialogue suspended since January 2016.
In an indirect reference to the SCO Summit, which will be attended by the prime ministers of both India and Pakistan, China’s state-run English daily Global Times has suggested that India’s cooperation with Islamabad is “indispensable to fight against terrorism if New Delhi wants to promote a global convention”.
While applauding Modi’s ‘neighbourhood first’ policy in the context of his visits to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, Global Times suggested that this policy should include Pakistan and if “India-Pakistan ties improve and stabilise, India will gain more esteem in the region”.
