New Delhi : Foreign secretary S Jaishankar has asserted that China’s act of frustrating India’s bid to have JeM chief and Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the United Nations was not going to affect the Sino-India relationship with China in other areas.
“This is an issue to be pursued with the Chinese in a UN context: I would not like to give the impression that somehow this is going to overflow into other areas. We have been going back and forth with them on this issue. We have to wait and see where this goes,” he said while responding to questions at an event that marked the opening of the Indian Centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
This assertion has come in the wake of media reports that India is considering a review of the ‘red carpet’ treatment that is given to the Chinese firms entering India with investment proposals. But Jaishankar observed that they had taken up the issue with China at a “fairly high level” and would continue to pursue the matter with Beijing in the context of the UN. Last week, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case “did not meet the requirements” of the Security Council.
This is not the first time China has blocked India’s bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN. The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India’s efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, which has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan again.
Last July, China had similarly halted India’s move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, saying its stand was “based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness” with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.
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— By | Mar 16, 2016 12:47 am
Just about two months after the terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station, police forces in states
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