The Pakistan Air Force officially inducted its first batch of Chinese-built J-10C fighter jets on Friday, holding a ceremony in Islamabad with officials from both countries.

Several of the jets flew overhead as Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the purchase, made for an undisclosed amount. Pakistan hasn’t said how many aircraft were bought in the deal, though authorities had earlier spoken of up to 25 jets. China is a longtime ally of Pakistan and has sold it military aircraft before.

“With the delivery of the J-10CEs, China and Pakistan opened a new chapter in aviation defence cooperation, and it will significantly contribute to the further deepening of the China-Pakistan All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) said in a statement, Global Times reported.

“In the 21st century, facing a new combat environment and the international market, China and Pakistan jointly developed the FC-1, an all-weather, single-engine, lightweight, multirole fourth generation fighter jet also known as the JF-17,” the AVIC said in the statement.

Without directly mentioning India, Khan said in his Friday speech that the Chinese-built planes would play an important role in rectifying a “security imbalance” in the region.

The ceremony comes a day after Pakistan said an unarmed surface-to-surface missile launched from India landed inside the country, damaging a wall in a residential area but causing no casualties.

Following the incident, Pakistan on Friday summoned an Indian diplomat and lodged a protest, according to a statement released by the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Later Friday, India’s Defence Ministry issued a statement saying that the missile that ended up in Pakistan was fired by accident due to a technical malfunction during a “routine maintenance” on Wednesday. It said the government ordered an investigation.

“While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident,” India said.

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations. They have fought three wars — two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two but claimed by both in its entirety.

Image courtesy: AP