China says no political considerations in Azhar's listing issue

Beijing: China today rejected India's assertion that moves at the UN to list JeM leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist were blocked due to narrow political considerations, saying it acted in a "candid way" over the issue based on rules and procedures.

China has been consistently blocking moves by India, the US, the UK and France to designate Azhar as a global terrorist by the 1267 Sanctions Committee by putting technical holds. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin during an open debate yesterday in the Security Council criticised some UN members for failing to "clearly understand" the common threat of terrorism.

"It is noticed that on an issue as serious as the designation of terrorist individuals and entities, the Council-mandated Sanctions Committees fail to make concrete progress and fall victim to narrow political and strategic concerns in some cases," he said.

Responding to Akbaruddin's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing that on Azhar's issue China had "acted in a candid way with ease". "So what we do is nothing to do with the narrow-minded political considerations as you mentioned," Hua said.

The issue of China blocking the listing of Azhar at the UN is expected to come up in tomorrow's 20th round of India- China border talks in New Delhi. The talks will be held between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. Besides the border-related issues, the two top officials also have the mandate to discuss all issues between the two countries. "We have stated our position multiple times about the listing issue 1267 committee to the media queries and dealt the questions in a sincere way on different occasions in the past," Hua said.

She said China "firmly" backed the crackdown on various international terrorist groups. Defending China's move to block the moves against Azhar who is accused by India of being the mastermind of the Pathankot terrorist attack, Hua said: "on this issue, we make our own judgement based on the merit of the matters themselves".

She said the "relevant move" by China in 1267 committee was based on its rules and procedures. "We will work with various parties to uphold the security and peace of the international communication," Hua said.