US Defense Department report outlines China’s differing ties with India and Pakistan, portraying India as a border interlocutor and Pakistan as China’s top defence export partner.
US Defense Department report outlines China’s differing ties with India and Pakistan [Photo: X]
New Delhi: A recently released report by the United States Department of Defense draws a clear distinction between China’s engagement with India and Pakistan, portraying New Delhi as a border-management and sovereignty interlocutor, while placing Islamabad firmly in the category of China’s most important defence export partner.
On India, the report records that in October 2024, Indian leadership announced an agreement with China to disengage from remaining standoff points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), days before a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. The Xi–Modi meeting, the report says, marked the start of monthly high-level engagements focused on border management and limited confidence-building measures, including discussions on direct flights, visa facilitation, and exchanges of academics and journalists.
However, the assessment remains cautious. It states that China probably seeks to capitalise on reduced tensions along the LAC to stabilise relations, while adding that India probably remains sceptical of China’s actions and intentions. The report concludes that continued mutual distrust and other unresolved irritants almost certainly limit the bilateral relationship.
India is also referenced in the report’s discussion of China’s stated “core interests,” where Beijing includes its territorial claim over the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh alongside Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the Senkaku Islands. The report does not associate this claim with any described military course of action against India.
By contrast, Pakistan features in the report primarily through the lens of defence industrial and arms-transfer ties. The report identifies Pakistan as China’s most significant recipient of Chinese military exports, particularly in combat aviation and naval platforms. It notes that Pakistan is the only country to which China has exported J-10C multirole fighter aircraft, with 20 jets delivered as of May 2025 out of orders placed since 2020, and highlights the long-running China–Pakistan co-production of the JF-17 fighter aircraft.
The report also records past naval sales to Pakistan, including four Chinese frigates delivered in 2017–18, and lists Pakistan among China’s established customers as Beijing seeks to expand its naval export market.
Notably, the assessment does not describe Pakistan as a formal military ally of China, nor does it refer to joint war planning, combined command structures, or Pakistan’s involvement in China’s principal military contingencies, which remain focused on the United States and Taiwan.
Overall, the report presents India and Pakistan as occupying fundamentally different positions in China’s security calculus: India as a neighbour with whom China is managing border tensions amid persistent distrust, and Pakistan as a key defence customer embedded in China’s military export ecosystem, but not portrayed as an operational or strategic co-equal partner.
