China on Wednesday expressed hope that its decision to place a ‘technical hold’ on designating Masood Azhar an international terrorist will not have a negative impact on Sino-Indian ties.
In response to a question on the possible adverse fallout of China’s decision on bilateral ties, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said China and India have been consulting each other.
“We don’t hope this will have a negative impact on our relationship.”
He added: “We put it (Azhar’s listing) on technical hold after we had several times of consultations with India. We hope relevant parties have enough time to consult with each other to make sure that the decision made by the committee will be a consensus representing the broad international community.”
In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup, said India was in contact with the Chinese authorities regarding the Azhar issue. “We have been informed of this development and the matter has been taken up with the Chinese government,” Mr. Swarup said.
Unlike previous occasions, following the Pathankot airbase attack last January, when India had sought the intervention of UN Security Council’s 1267 committee, the initiative for seeking an international ban on Azhar last month was taken by the U.S., backed by Britain and France.
Consensus lacking
However, the spokesperson signalled that the identity of the country that proposed the request was not relevant. “I would like to point out that the committee has its own set of discussion rules so whoever submitted the request, we believe all the members of the committee will act in line with the regulations of the Security Council and its affiliations.”
Mr. Lu reiterated that China had decided to place a “technical hold” on Azhar’s listing because a consensus on that decision among the member countries had not been achieved.
Asked if a consensus among member countries could be reached prior to the committee’s next meeting later this year, Mr. Lu stressed that it would not be possible to fix a timeline.
