Surgical strike 2.0: China asks India, Pakistan to exercise restraint

China on Tuesday urged India and Pakistan to "exercise restraint" and asked New Delhi to carry out its fight against terrorism through international cooperation, hours after Indian fighter jets struck Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest camp in Pakistan in a pre-dawn attack. More than 10 bombs were dropped by the multi-role fighter jet Mirage 2000 at around 3:30 am. The aerial attack comes a day after Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a high-level meeting with all three service chiefs. When asked for China's response to India's airstrikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told the media here that we have taken note of relevant reports."

"I want to say that India and Pakistan are both important countries in South Asia. A sound relationship and cooperation between the two serve the interests of both the countries and peace and stability in South Asia," he said.

"We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and do more to improve mutual their bilateral relations," he said.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale has also briefed foreign diplomats from the USA, UK, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey and six ASEAN nations.