China should stop shielding Pak-based terrorist leaders

China must stop shielding terrorists based in Pakistan from United Nations' sanctions if it wants to add momentum to the process to mend its ties with India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tell Chinese president Xi Jinping next week.

Modi and Xi will meet at Johannesburg on the sideline of the summit of the BRICS— a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa— next week.

This is going to be the third meeting between the two leaders this year, after the “informal summit” at Wuhan in central China in April and on the sideline of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's summit at Qingdao in eastern China in June.

The “informal summit” at Wuhan in April brought the ties between India and China back on track, after it hit a new low over the 72-day-long military stand-off at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan last year.

The two leaders followed it up with the meeting at Qingdao in June.

Prime minister and Chinese president are now likely to use the forthcoming meeting to review the outcomes of the series of bilateral engagements the two nations had after the “informal summit” held in Wuhan in April.

China has in the past repeatedly blocked India's attempts to get the United Nations to impose sanctions on terrorist leaders based in Pakistan, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Moulana Masood Azhar.

Modi is likely to nudge Xi to review the stand taken by China at the United Nations on the issue of bringing anti-India terrorist leaders based in Pakistan under international sanctions.

He is likely to remind Chinese president that one of the outcomes of the informal summit at Wuhan was the recognition by both of them of “the common threat posed by terrorism”.

They had not only reiterated their “strong condemnation of and resolute opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”, but had also committed themselves to cooperate on counter-terrorism.

On Saturday, sources told the DH that prime minister would convey to the Chinese president that Beijing's support to New Delhi to bring terrorist leaders under the UN sanctions would help his government garner more support from within India to continue efforts to mend ties with China.

India may make a fresh attempt to get JeM chief under UN sanctions if it receives a positive response from China, said sources.

Notwithstanding the efforts by both sides to bring the ties back on track, China continued to block India's entry into the Nuclear Security Group (NSG).

The last plenary of the NSG saw China continuing to resist India's entry into the cartel, which governs global nuclear commerce.

Nudged by Beijing, New Delhi, however, made national carrier Air India to replace “Taiwan” with “Chinese Taipei” as a destination on its website.

Beijing, however, has not signaled any reciprocity in addressing New Delhi's concerns, including on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is proposed to go through Indian territories, which are under illegal occupation of Pakistan.