New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor stated on Thursday that 81 percent of Pakistan’s defense equipment is sourced from China, rendering the nation an ‘impossible factor’ to overlook in the ongoing conflict with Islamabad.
Tharoor, who is at the helm of a parliamentary delegation visiting the US to highlight Islamabad’s connections with terrorism following India’s Operation Sindoor, remarked that relations between New Delhi and Beijing were progressing well until last month’s altercation with Pakistan.
“I won’t sugarcoat my words; we recognize that China has significant interests in Pakistan,” PTI reported Tharoor as saying to think tank representatives at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC.
Tharoor emphasized that the largest single initiative under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), reiterating that 81 percent of Pakistan’s defense equipment originates from China.
“Defense might not be the most accurate term here. Offense, in many respects… China is undeniably an impossible factor to disregard in our confrontations with Pakistan,” Tharoor remarked.
Shashi Tharoor informed the audience that India had experienced positive developments in its relationship with China following the tensions that arose after the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes. The Thiruvananthapuram MP noted that during Operation Sindoor and the conflict with Pakistan, New Delhi encountered a markedly different China regarding its support for Islamabad, even within the UN Security Council.
“We are fully aware of the challenges present in our neighborhood, but I want to remind everyone that India has consistently opted for a strategy of maintaining open lines of communication, even with our adversaries. We have endeavored to concentrate on development, growth, and trade. Our trade with China remains at unprecedented levels. It is not that we are taking a hostile stance, but it would be naive to ignore these other dynamics at play,” he stated.
China’s assistance to Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror incident
The UN Security Council released a press statement on April 25 regarding the ‘terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’ that occurred on April 22 in Pahalgam, resulting in the deaths of 26 individuals, primarily tourists. The statement condemned the attack in “the strongest terms” but did not reference The Resistance Front, as Pakistan, a non-permanent member of the council, successfully had it removed with support from China.
“The members of the Security Council emphasized the necessity to hold accountable the perpetrators, organizers, financiers, and sponsors of this abhorrent act of terrorism and to bring them to justice,” the press statement indicated.
Shashi Tharoor was questioned about the Chinese military equipment utilized by Pakistan during the conflict in a previous discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The head of the delegation remarked that when India observed the actions Pakistan was attempting to execute using Chinese technology, such as the ‘kill chain’ that China specializes in—where radar, GPS, aircraft, and missiles are interconnected and respond instantaneously—”we simply approached things differently. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to strike” 11 Pakistani airfields, nor would we have been able to penetrate the air defenses supplied by China.
“Thus, it is evident that evaluations were being conducted while the combat was ongoing, and we were adjusting our strategies to conclude as effectively as we could,” Tharoor stated.
