Three unnamed Pakistani officials said Chinese mediation in recent weeks has helped ease cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with China's special envoy to Afghanistan shuttling between the warring countries for talks and China's President Xi Jinping recording a message in late February calling for the parties to halt their skirmishes, Reuters reported on March 12. Pakistani officials did not comment on China's reported mediation efforts.

The report on China's mediation efforts comes weeks after Pakistan on Feb. 22 launched retaliatory airstrikes in Afghanistan following a spate of deadly militant attacks. The strikes paved the way for a tit-for-tat escalation that culminated in Feb. 27 Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan Taliban military facilities in major Afghan cities, and the neighbors clashed more intensely than they have in years. While a number of countries immediately called for de-escalation and offered to mediate, the subsequent eruption of the U.S. and Israel-Iran conflict on Feb. 28 shifted international attention away from Afghanistan and Pakistan, temporarily easing external pressure on both sides to cease their hostilities.