China on Friday defended Pakistan, saying it has made “tremendous efforts” in fighting terror and should not be singled out, after India and the US issued a strong statement asking Islamabad to act against the use of its territory to launch attacks.

“Terrorism is common challenge faced by all countries. And Pakistan has made tremendous efforts and sacrificed in fighting terrorism. The international community should fully recognise and respect that,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a regular briefing.

His remarks came a day after a joint statement at the end of the 17th meeting of the US-India Joint Working Group on Counter-terrorism and the third session of the Designations Dialogue held virtually on September 9-10.

It said India and the US “underlined the urgent need for Pakistan to take immediate, sustained, and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for terrorist attacks, and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of such attacks, including 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot.”

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Noting that Friday is the 19th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the US, Zhao said: “All countries should work together to prevent and fight terrorism and safeguard world’s peace and stability. So, on this very special day I would like to say that we hope the US won’t forget terrorism and Covid-19 are common enemies to all mankind. And China and Pakistan are not the enemies of the US.”

“China opposes all kind of terrorism and we believe that the UN should play a leading role and we oppose double standards on counter terrorism. And we oppose the attempt to link the terrorism to any specific country,” he added.

Zhao said that all countries should work together to prevent and fight terrorism and safeguard world’s peace and stability.