China, Pakistan join hands against terror

BEIJING: China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan issued a joint statement on counter-terrorism at the end of a military dialogue in Urumqi, the capital city

BEIJING: China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan issued a joint statement on counter-terrorism at the end of a military dialogue in Urumqi, the capital city of the restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

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According to China’s defence ministry, the four parties agreed that terrorism and extremism pose serious threats to regional stability, and fully recognised the unremitting efforts made by their militaries on fighting terrorist and extremist forces.

“The four parties agreed to establish the “quadrilateral mechanism” to coordinate with and support each other in a range of areas, including study and judgment of counter terrorism situation, confirmation of clues, intelligence sharing, anti-terrorist capability building, joint anti-terrorist training and personnel training, and that the coordination and cooperation will be exclusive to the four countries,” the ministry said on Thursday.

“The four parties agreed that the “quadrilateral mechanism” should abide by the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and other recognised principles and rules of international law, especially the principles of preserving international peace and security, maintaining independence and equality, mutual respect to sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression and mutual noninterference in each other’s internal affairs,” it said.

Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif and his Chinese counterpart General Fang Fenghui took part in the dialogue.

Delivering the keynote address, Fang said: “Currently, the three evil forces of terrorism, extremism and separatism are frequently creating disturbances, seriously affecting regional peace and stability.”

The purpose of establishing “quadrilateral mechanism” was to implement the important consensus reached by heads of state of the four countries.