Rajnath to meet China minister over counter-terror talks

Meet to strengthen ties after Azar issue, fiasco over India's NSG bid

 Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chinese Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun are likely to meet in New Delhi to discuss ways to step up counter-terrorism cooperation.

New Delhi and Beijing are in touch to schedule the meeting as soon as possible. Both sides are keen to take counter-terrorism cooperation to a new level, moving on from the fiasco over China’s opposition to India’s bid to get United Nations’ sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorist leader Masood Azhar.

The meeting between Singh and Guo is among several engagements between New Delhi and Beijing lined up for the coming months to add new momentum to bilateral relation, which came under stress after China blocked India’s entry to the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group last month.

Sources in New Delhi said Singh’s meeting with the minister would mark the launch of the India-China “high-level mechanism” for cooperation on internal security.

The new mechanism is intended to focus on stepping up cooperation in combating international terrorism through sharing of intelligence inputs on terrorist activities, terrorist groups and links between terror networks, apart from exchange of experiences in responding to hijacking, hostage situations and other related attacks, sources told DH.
New Delhi and Beijing are likely to use the meeting to coordinate positions on anti-terrorism endeavours and support each other at regional and multilateral levels. They will also discuss ways to cut flow of fund to terror networks.

Singh is likely to nudge Guo to change Beijing’s policy of opposing New Delhi’s move to designate Azhar, who heads terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi of Lashkar-e-Toiba and other terrorists based in Pakistan as associates of al Qaeda, Taliban and Islamic State, and impose UN sanctions on them. He will also convey New Delhi’s concerns over reports of some insurgent leaders of north eastern states taking refuge in China, said sources.

Guo is likely to convey to Singh the concerns of Beijing over extremist elements among Tibetan exiles in India.

Apart from the situation in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the common concerns of India and China include the menace of Islamic State and its influence among youths in both the countries as well as in their neighbourhood.

Beijing is understood to be concerned over reports about youths from China’s Xinxiang Uyghur Autonomous Region joining the Islamic State. New Delhi also has similar concerns. The shared concerns of both the governments underlined the need for setting up a mechanism for sharing of intelligence, particularly on the terror organisation’s recruits from the region and its footprints in the neighbourhood, sources said in New Delhi.

Singh and Guo are also expected to discuss ways to address the root causes of terrorism like poverty, un- employment and underdevelopment, apart from sharing experiences on de-radicalisation.