New Delhi: After Pakistan PM Imran Khan's visit, China on Sunday said it backed Pakistan’s efforts towards improving ties and settling disputes with India through talks. It said it also backed Islamabad’s engagement with the Nuclear Suppliers group (NSG). In a joint statement it said it supported Pakistan’s “quest for peace through dialogue” to settle the outstanding disputes, without directly mentioning the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan Prime Minister Khan met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premeir Li Keqiang during his first official visit to the country.

China also hailed Pakistan’s ‘efforts to counter terrorism’ and said Pakistan has been actively strengthening financial regulations to combat terrorism financing and called on all relevant parties to view Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts in an objective and fair manner.

Pakistan is an all weather ally of China. China has expressed its backing for Pakistan’s efforts to secure the NSG membership and has been blocking India’s entry into the NSG on the ground that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), even though majority of the NSG countries supported India’s entry.

The joint statement reads: “The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to multilateral, non-discriminatory arms control and non-proliferation endeavours. In this context, China supports Pakistan's engagement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group and welcomes its adherence of NSG Guidelines.”

At the same time China is building pressure on Pakistan to take firm action against Uygur Islamic militants crossing in and out of the volatile Muslim-majority China’s Xinjiang province which borders Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Both sides have agreed to make full use of the China-Pakistan Defence and Security Consultation mechanism, deepen cooperation in areas such as military exercises, training cooperation, personnel exchanges, and equipment and technology cooperation

During his visit, Prime Minister Khan held high level talks with Chinese heads mainly focusing on seeking China's loans to tide over serious financial crisis faced by Pakistan.