New Delhi: New Delhi has firmly rejected claims by China that it played a mediating role in securing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during the military confrontation in May, reiterating that the truce followed direct communication between the two countries’ military leaderships and involved no third-party intervention.
The clarification came after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi publicly listed “tensions between Pakistan and India” among several global hotspots that Beijing said it had helped mediate this year. His remarks echoed earlier assertions by US President Donald Trump, both of which India has consistently disputed. Indian government sources said Islamabad itself reached out to New Delhi after Operation Sindoor, stressing that India’s long-standing position leaves no scope for outside mediation in matters involving Pakistan.
“India’s position on mediation has always been clear. There was no mediation that took place after Operation Sindoor,” sources said, adding that Pakistan requested India’s Director General of Military Operations for a ceasefire. According to New Delhi, the understanding to halt hostilities was achieved through direct talks between the DGMOs of the two armies.
The Ministry of External Affairs had detailed the process during a press briefing on May 13, stating that “the specific date, time and wording of the understanding were worked out between the DGMOs of the two countries at their phone call on 10th May 2025, commencing at 15:35 hours.” The military confrontation itself lasted four days, from May 7 to May 10.
Wang, speaking at the Symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations in Beijing, said global conflicts and cross-border tensions had intensified this year. “Local wars and cross-border conflicts flared up more often than at any time since the end of WWII,” he said, adding that China had adopted what he described as an objective approach focused on addressing both immediate issues and deeper causes. Listing Beijing’s claimed diplomatic engagements, he said China had mediated in northern Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear issue, the India-Pakistan situation, the Palestine-Israel conflict, and the recent Cambodia-Thailand confrontation.
India’s rejection of Beijing’s mediation claims comes amid sharper scrutiny of China’s role during the May conflict. A bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report released last month said Beijing “opportunistically” used the India-Pakistan clashes to test and promote its defence capabilities. The report noted that the four-day conflict marked the first active combat use of several modern Chinese weapons systems, including the HQ-9 air defence system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10 fighter aircraft.
Describing the episode as a real-world field experiment, the commission said China later sought to capitalise on the perceived performance of its systems. It reported that Beijing offered to sell Pakistan 40 J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft, and ballistic missile defence systems in June. Chinese embassies, the report added, highlighted the “successes” of these systems in the conflict in an effort to boost arms exports.
China has declined to directly respond to India’s assertion that the conflict was used as a “live lab”. Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Rahul R Singh said Beijing’s approach during Operation Sindoor drew on its ancient “36 stratagems”, describing it as an attempt to harm India by backing Pakistan. Beijing, whose arms exports account for more than 81 per cent of Pakistan’s military hardware, has sought to downplay these allegations. On the diplomatic front, China had called on both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint on May 7, even as it expressed regret over India’s airstrikes at the outset of Operation Sindoor. A Chinese foreign ministry statement that day said Beijing opposed all forms of terrorism and urged calm in the interest of peace.
In his wider remarks, Wang spoke of improving momentum in China-India relations, noting that leaders of India and North Korea had been invited to China this year and referring to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin in August as a success. He also highlighted the expansion of BRICS to 20 members and addressed China’s ties with the United States, calling the relationship one of the most consequential in the world and urging dialogue alongside firmness on core interests.