BEIJING – China on Monday welcomed the opening of the landmark Kartarpurcorridor and hoped that both India and Pakistan “can continue to showgoodwill” to resolve their differences through dialogue.
The first batch of the Indian Sikh pilgrims entered Pakistan on Saturdayusing the historic corridor, which was thrown open ahead of the 550th birthanniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith.
The corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final restingplace of Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab’s Gurdaspur.
“We welcome such good interactions between India and Pakistan,” ChineseForeign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media here.
“Both countries are important in South Asia and peaceful coexistencebetween the two meets the fundamental interests of both and the commonaspiration of the world,” he said.
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“We hope the two sides can continue to show the goodwill moving in the samedirection, properly resolving the differences through dialogue andimproving their relations, and jointly safeguarding regional peace andstability,” he added.
The inauguration of the corridor comes amid frayed ties between India andPakistan following New Delhi’s decision in August to withdraw Jammu andKashmir’s special status and bifurcate the State into two Union Territories.
