Pakistan terror issue out of bounds at summit: China

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA

China believes discussing Pakistan's counter-terrorism efforts at a summit of emerging economies starting on Sunday would be inappropriate, despite India’s concerns, a Beijing spokesman has said.

“We also noticed that India, when it comes to Pakistan’s counter-terrorism, has some concerns. I don’t think this is an appropriate topic to be discussed at BRICS summit,” Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said at a briefing, as quoted by Pakistani daily The Express Tribune on Saturday.

In saying this, reported the paper, China clearly signaled that it would object to any discussion of Pakistan allegedly providing shelter to terrorists, an issue India has complained about in recent years.

The newspaper said China is worried Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may raise the issue at the summit, after doing the same at last year’s Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit in the west Indian state of Goa, when it accused Pakistan of being the “mothership of terrorism”.

Hua also warned that raising the issue might hamper the summit.

“The world is paying great attention to the BRICS summit. I hope relevant parties can work with China to ensure the success of the summit and make due contributions,” the paper quoted her as saying.

“Pakistan is at the forefront of counter-terror efforts and has made sacrifices for this. The international community should recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by Pakistan.

“China is willing to work with Pakistan and other countries to enhance our cooperation in counterterrorism. This serves the common interest of all parties,” she added.

The BRICS summit will take place in Xiamen, China on Sept. 3-5.