Islamabad, 8 July 2025:
Chief of Pakistan Army Field Marshal Asim Munir has strongly denied reports that Pakistan had external assistance on the Chinese side during the Indian Operation sindoor but has termed them as irresponsible and factually wrong.
The refutation was on an official occasion of sending off graduating officers at the National Defence University when Munir reacted to comment by the Indian Army Deputy Chief, Lt Gen Rahul R Singh, that Chinese had given Pakistan live input and allowed its soil to work as a live laboratory to test weapons. According to Munir: Writings of foreign influence in the successful Operation Bunyanum Marsoos of Pakistan are baseless and ignorant and symptomatic of an inability to accept home grown capacity and institutional strength to survive.
I had asserted that during the operation in May, India had to deal with not two adversaries but, as Lt Gen Singh alleged, the three adversaries the country found itself confronting Pakistan, China and Turkey. China was offering all the support she could and that Pakistan got information on attacks on a real time basis . He has also emphasised the fact that, the military hardware being acquired by Pakistan is all Chinese totaling to 81 per cent of it all.
Munir emphasised the diplomatic inclination of Pakistan and reiterated that the country had developed enduring relationships though principled diplomacy relying on mutual respect and peace and had become a stabiliser in the region. Even when India was on the attack, he threatened it to respond in case it made an attack on the civilian or military infrastructure of Pakistan, saying that any attack would result in an equally intense yet more than a retaliatory retaliation reaction.
New Delhi has responded to these denials by pointing to the widespread use of Chinese military equipment deployed by Pakistan in the course of Operation Sindoor, to view the clash as a real life demonstration of Chinese military imports.
China on its side has not denied nor confirmed its participation. It stated through its Foreign Ministry that the Defence and security cooperation is a normal cooperation between the two countries and no target to any other third party is held by this cooperation though it stated that “We want to have normal cooperation with the two countries without targeting a third party”.
This has been seen in his promotion to the honorary position of Field Marshal on 20 May 2005, an unusual honour in Pakistan, thus making him only the second officer so titled since former President Ayub Khan. The move was seen to bolster his leadership at a time when criticisms of the performance of the Pakistani military during Operation Sindoor were being voiced.
It is a common war of words on the national stage with both military forces trying to gain the upper hand in influencing the regional and international perception of the war. As Pakistan tries to defend its role of Chinese assistance and India showcases physical evidence of hardware, the debate over international assistance during Operation Sindoor is to be one of the biggest sources of tension between the nations.
As they both proceed to strengthen their theoretical and symbolic defence, the international community will have to figure out what part is fact and which is rhetoric. The question of the role of China, hopefully strategic, tactical aid, supplying equipment or even participating in providing intelligence is now at the centre of the military responsibility and strategic trusting in South Asia.