China on Monday asked India and Pakistan to seek a solution to the Kashmir issue through peaceful and friendly consultations and offered to play a "constructive role" in resolving the "bilateral issue".
As a friendly country, China would also be happy to see progress in the peace process between India and Pakistan, said Hu Zhengyue, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, in-charge of Asia.
"Kashmir is an issue that has been long-standing left from history. This issue touches the bilateral relations between the relevant countries," he told a group of visiting foreign journalists.
As China is a friendly neighbour of both countries, it hopes to see that the two sides "will seek a solution through peaceful and friendly consultations", Hu said when asked by a Pakistani journalist if China was prepared to play some role in the resolution of the issue.
While he stressed that Kashmir was a bilateral issue, he stopped short of ruling out the possibility of mediation.
"As a friend China will be happy to see such progress (in the peace process) and we will be happy if we can play a constructive role in the resolving of the issue (Kashmir), but after all it is a bilateral issue," he said.
He said that China hoped the peace process between India and Pakistan "will continue to go smoothly".
