China on Tuesday urged India and Pakistan to “exercise restraint” after the Indian Air Force (IAF) hit the biggest Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Pakistan.

“We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilise the situation in the region and improve mutual relations,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

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This clearly suggests that China has no intention of backing its all-weather friend Pakistan in the face of intense heat on Islamabad from the world community to contain terror emanating from the Pakistani soil.

Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, had on Monday spoken to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi about the situation in the sub-continent.

The Chinese Foreign Minister is scheduled to host a meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) on Wednesday at Wuzhen. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will represent India at this meeting.

She is expected to hold a bilateral meeting also with Wang at which she is expected to brief him on the compulsions under which India carried out strikes on the terror camp in Pakistan.