'India welcome to join anti-terror body'

Beijing is 'open' to the idea of New Delhi’s entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in view of the jihadi threat hovering over India. Rahul Karmakar finds out more.

China has sought a greater role in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) besides envisaging Indian participation in a bid to form an EU-like Asian Economic Bloc.

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Beijing is also “open” to the idea of New Delhi’s entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in view of the jihadi threat hovering over India. SCO is an intergovernmental anti-terror body that China formed in 2001 with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its main agenda was to neutralise Islamic separatism in northwest China.

At the 14th SAARC summit in Dhaka last year, China had debuted as an observer of the eight-nation South Asian bloc. “The SAARC nations had accepted many of our proposals at the Dhaka summit,” said assistant Foreign Affairs minister He Yafei here on Thursday. “We are hoping for a bigger role at this year’s summit in Sri Lanka.”

He, however, said it was too early for China to apply for SAARC membership. “This depends on the collective wish of the member-nations just as admitting India into SCO would depend on consensus of all the members,” he said, adding “we would like to see India as a member” of SCO.

According to Yafei, stronger ties with the SAARC nations have translated into a 45 per cent increase in trade volume for China. “But we do not want only trade ties; we seek people to people exchanges that will lay the foundation for lasting relationship,” he said.

On the probability of Asian Tigers like China, India and South East Asian countries teaming up for an economic bloc, Yafei said: “We would like to have uch a bloc, but we must strengthen our cooperation despite the diversities across Asia.”