India refutes China's 'bilateral' stand, says proposal was joint effort to ban Masood Azhar

Refuting China's stand that India and Pakistan should talk to each other over Masood Azhar issue, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said the joint proposal by India, U.S., UK and France was a classic counter-terrorism proposal to proscribe the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief.

"The proposal wasn't moved by India but by three UNSC members U.S., UK and France. It was classic counter-terror proposal meant to proscribe Masood Azhar," MEA official spokesperson Vikas Swarup told the media.

Re-iterating India's stand on the issue, Swarup categorically stated that it is not a bilateral matter but global.

"We don't view this as a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan but as global counter-terrorism. Hope eventually China will accept this view," he added.

Responding to the Chinese Foreign Ministry's statement that there was "no consensus", Swarup said, "If there's a change in the Chinese position, there will be consensus also."

The MEA also confirmed that the matter has been taken up by both Chinese embassy in New Delhi and in the foreign office in Beijing by the Indian embassy and that demarches have been served in the same.

On January 19, China once again blocked the proposal to proscribe Azhar.