NEW DELHI, Oct 7: China has advised India that instead of frittering its energies in debilitating quarrels with Islamabad, New Delhi should join hands with Pakistan to fight the menace of terrorism that targets both countries with equal animosity, the Times of India said on Monday.

The newspaper quoted Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi as saying in an exclusive interview in Beijing that while recent armed attacks in Kashmir were acts of terrorism, the issue of Kashmir was not about terrorism but about complex religious and territorial issues.

“Even as it seeks to strengthen its relations with India in the framework of a ‘comprehensive partnership of cooperation’, which includes a common approach to issues related to regional security and terrorism, China is unlikely to share New Delhi’s hugely negative perceptions about Pakistan,” Times editor Dileep Padgaonkar wrote, summarizing the interview.

He said in conversations with senior officials of the Chinese foreign ministry and with South Asia experts, he found that Pakistan continues to figure in a markedly favourable light as an “old friend” which gave China a “helping hand” during the “difficult Cold War years.”

“It is in the Chinese tradition to value an old friend,” said Wang Yi. “Pakistan is our neighbour as well as your neighbour. Our relationship with Pakistan is based on the principles of panchshila (five principles of peaceful co-existence). It is not targeted at a third country.”

This is why, Wang added, China could not understand why “our Indian friends are suspicious about the China-Pakistan relationship.”

Asked for China’s views on terrorist attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere in India, the vice minister stated categorically that the killing of innocents “falls squarely within the scope of terrorism” which had been condemned by the international community.

But he quickly added that the question of Kashmir was not related merely to terrorism and counter-terrorism. It was a “left-over from history, from the aftermath of British colonialism” and it involved “very complicated territorial and religious issues.”

Wang said the Kashmir problem could not be solved through military means. China hoped the two sides would create the proper atmosphere for the resumption of talks. There is a platform which India and Pakistan have not explored before to settle their outstanding differences.

“Some terrorist organizations are targeting both India and Pakistan. Why can’t the two countries get together to contain them?” he asked. India, he added, needs to acknowledge President Pervez Musharraf’s efforts to combat all forms of terrorism in his country and to control the expansion of extremist forces.