New Delhi: The joint declaration at the BRICS summit in Xiamen came as a huge boost for India. Its efforts at highlighting terror emanating from the neighborhood found specific mention with the names of Pak-based terror outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed in the joint declaration.
“We express concern over the security situation in the region and violence caused by Taliban, ISIL/DAISH, Al-Qaida and its affiliates including Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, TTP and Hizb ut-Tahrir,” the declaration said.
India had made a major push at last year’s Goa BRICS summit to get Pakistan and its terror outfits find mention in the declaration but failed. The matter was discussed in the plenary but China is believed to have blocked a mention of LeT and JeM.
When asked about China’s changed stand, Secretary (East) Preeti Saran said, “It’s a consensus process. It has been endorsed and signed by all the five BRICS countries. This is an important development.”
In the Goa summit last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The mothership of terrorism is in India’s neighbourhood,” but the declaration did not mention Pakistan-related terror outfits.
In view of the win in Xiamen, Saran said, “Terrorism is a scourge. You cannot have double standards in fighting terror.” This clearly indicated how China will be under pressure now to not continue to block efforts at the UN to declare Masood Azhar a designated terrorist. Â Â (Inputs News Agency)
