China sticks to its guns on blocking India's bid to ban Azhar

Sticking to its guns, China today again justified its decision to block India's bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN and described its stance as "fair and based on facts".
"China always deals with the listing of 1267 committee based on facts and pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions and relevant rules in a fair manner," Chinese Foreign Ministry said in response to India's Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin's criticism of "hidden veto" in dealing with the listing of terrorist outfits and their leaders.
"We have noticed the remarks by India's Permanent Representative to the UN," the Foreign Ministry said in written response to a question from PTI.

"Both China and India fall victim to terrorism and share similar positions when it comes to combating terrorism," it said.
China is one of the five veto-wielding members of the UNSC which plays a leading role in banning terrorist outfits.
"China supports the UN in playing a leading role in international anti-terrorism cooperation and takes an active part in international anti-terrorism cooperation," the Ministry said.

"In order to reach international consensus on counter terrorism, China encourage all parties to fully leverage the leading and coordinating role played by the UN and the Security Council and forge international synergy on counter-terrorism," it said.

This is the second time that China has defended the decision to put a technical hold on India's bid to ban Azhar, the mastermind of the January 2 Pathankot terrorist attack.
On April 1, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China dealt with the issues under the UNSC anti-terrorism committee based on "facts and relevant rules of procedures in objective and just manner".
The latest response comes in the backdrop of India taking up the issue directly with China.
China too acknowledged that it is in touch with New Delhi on this issue indicating that its position remained unchanged.

The deadlock over the issue continued as both the countries are set for high-level engagements to discuss the state of bilateral ties.
While External Affairs Minster Sushma Swaraj is set to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the Russia, India, China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting in Moscow on April 18, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar began his first visit to China today.