China has on Wednesday supported India’s stand over Pakistan backed and based terrorism, stating that terror organization can’t be used to promote geopolitical or political goals of the country.
According to NDTV news reports, China has used very strong terms to state that “those committing, orchestrating, inciting or supporting terrorist acts must be held accountable and brought to justice”.
A joint statement issued by India, China and Russia at their 16th trilateral meeting (RIC meeting), stated: “The (foreign) ministers strongly condemned terrorism in all forms and manifestations. They called on the international community to strengthen the United Nations-led global counter-terrorism cooperation by fully implementing relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in accordance with the United Nations charter and the principles of international law while respecting sovereignty and independence of all states, and expeditiously finalising and adopting the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the earliest.”
“They also stressed that terrorist groups cannot be supported and used in political and geopolitical goals,” it added.
However, China tempered its statement by further adding that Islamabad “has always been opposed” to terrorism. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said, “As a mutual friend of both countries, we hope that they can conduct a dialogue and establish facts through investigation to keep things under control and maintain peace and stability in the region.”
The meeting held in Beijing was attended by Indian external minister Sushma Swaraj, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Swaraj left for China to attend RIC meeting on Tuesday, hours after IAF fighter jet struck a JeM terror camp in Balakot across LOC.
Addressing the threat of chemical and biological terrorism, the communique read: “They (the three foreign ministers) supported and emphasised the need for launching multilateral negotiations on an international convention for the suppression of acts of chemical and biological terrorism within the Conference on Disarmament.”
PTI news agency has quoted Chinese FM spokesperson Lu Kang as saying, “We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilise the situation in the region and improve mutual relations.”