Congress Flags China's Military Aid to Pakistan as Foreign Minister Visits

Jairam Ramesh, a senior Congress leader, used the occasion of China's foreign minister arriving in New Delhi to mount a sharp critique of the government's approach to Beijing. Speaking just before Wang Yi touched down on Monday for a two-day visit, Ramesh argued that India was accepting unfavorable terms from a country that had just armed Pakistan against Indian interests.

The specific grievance centered on Operation Sindoor, the military campaign launched in May to respond to a terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians. According to Ramesh, citing statements from India's Deputy Chief of Army Staff, China had supplied Pakistan with advanced weaponry during that operation—including J-10C fighter jets, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and various drone systems. More damaging still, he claimed, was the provision of live intelligence feeds that gave Pakistan real-time information about Indian military movements. The operation itself, which ran from May 7 until a ceasefire on May 10, had inflicted significant damage on terror infrastructure in Pakistani territory, but the fact that China had actively supported the other side seemed to Ramesh a betrayal that the government was now glossing over by hosting Wang Yi's visit.

Ramesh's broader complaint was that India had paid too high a price for what he called Prime Minister Modi's "clean chit" to China. In June 2020, just days after the Galwan Valley clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers, Modi had declared publicly that no Chinese troops had crossed into Indian territory. Ramesh viewed this statement as a capitulation that had emboldened Beijing and left the martyred soldiers dishonored. The consequences, he argued, were visible in the border agreements that followed. In October 2024, India had agreed to a disengagement framework that required Indian patrols to obtain Chinese permission before reaching certain patrol points in Depsang, Demchok, and Chumar. Additionally, India had accepted "buffer zones" in Galwan, Hot Spring, and Pangong Tso—areas that lay within India's own claim line. None of this, Ramesh insisted, represented a return to the status quo that existed before the 2020 clash. Instead, it amounted to a retreat.

There was also the matter of the Medog Dam. China had begun construction on a 60-gigawatt hydroelectric project on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, a waterway that flows through Tibet before entering India as the Brahmaputra. Ramesh flagged this as having "very serious implications" for India, though he did not elaborate on what those implications might be—presumably related to water flow, irrigation, and downstream environmental effects.

Wang Yi's visit was framed by the government as part of a broader effort to stabilize the India-China relationship after years of tension. The foreign minister was scheduled to meet separately with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval before calling on Modi on Tuesday. The talks were expected to cover the border situation, trade relations, and the resumption of flight services between the two countries. The timing was significant: Modi was planning to travel to China shortly after to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, suggesting that both sides were attempting to create a warmer atmosphere for that engagement.

Yet Ramesh's intervention highlighted the political cost of that warming. By raising the question of Chinese military support to Pakistan just as the foreign minister arrived, he was forcing the government to defend a diplomatic posture that many in the opposition viewed as accommodating to Beijing at the expense of India's security interests and the memory of fallen soldiers.