BEIJING: There was no mention of counter-terrorism in the first official statement from China on the closely-followed meeting between President Xi Jinping and PM Narendra Modi in Goa on the sidelines of the eighth BRICS Summit.
It talked about enriching the bilateral partnership and cooperating within multilateral frameworks and how the relationship was important to protecting “reasonable interests” in the international arena but did talk about expanding consensus and mutual trust.
The only specifics in the statement were that the two countries should expand cooperation on railway projects and industrial parks.
The statement and post-meeting signals in Goa probably reveal that India and China are far from resolving differences in views on New Delhi’s assertion that Pakistan, China’s all-weather ally, is the primary source of terrorism. It means terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar can breathe easy. Beijing has extended a ‘technical hold’ on a UN ban on Azhar that India has been advocating. Expectedly, the statement made no mention of India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group aspirations.
The statement released by official news agency Xinhua painted the state of Sino-India relationship in a broad brush and a fair amount of diplomatic jargon. “The development momentum of China-India ties is encouraging, and a healthy and stable China-India relationship is conducive not only to both countries’ development, but to safeguarding the developing countries’ reasonable interests in global governance and international systems,” Xi was quoted as telling Modi.
{{/usCountry}}The statement released by official news agency Xinhua painted the state of Sino-India relationship in a broad brush and a fair amount of diplomatic jargon. “The development momentum of China-India ties is encouraging, and a healthy and stable China-India relationship is conducive not only to both countries’ development, but to safeguarding the developing countries’ reasonable interests in global governance and international systems,” Xi was quoted as telling Modi.
{{/usCountry}}“…the two countries should support each other in participating in regional affairs and enhance cooperation within multilateral frameworks including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the East Asia Summit,” he said.
Xinhua quoted Modi too as having in spoken in general statements.