BRICS Summit: No talk on terror in China's statement on Modi-Xi meeting

There was no mention of counter-terrorism in the first official statement from China on the closely-followed meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s in Goa on the sidelines of the 8th BRICS Summit.

It talked about enriching the bilateral partnership and cooperating within multilateral frameworks and how the relationship was important to protecting the “reasonable interests” in the international arena.

The statement did talk about expanding consensus and mutual trust.

The only specifics in the official statement were that the two countries should expand cooperation on railway projects and industrial parks.

Sunday’s early morning statement from Beijing and the post-meeting signals in Goa probably reveal that India and China are far from resolving differences in views on New Delhi’s assertion that Pakistan – China’s all-weather ally – is the primary source of terrorism.

It means terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad chief, Masood Azhar can breathe easy. Beijing has extended a ‘technical hold’ on an UN ban on Azhar that India has been advocating.

Expectedly, the Chinese statement made no mention of India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) aspirations.

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The statement released by the official news agency, Xinhua painted the state of Sino-India relationship in a broad brush and a fair amount of diplomatic jargon – the state of ties, it said, was encouraging.

“The development momentum of China-India ties is encouraging, and a healthy and stable China-India relationship is conducive not only to both countries’ development, but to safeguarding the developing countries’ reasonable interests in global governance and international systems,” Xi was quoted by Xinhua as telling Modi.

“…the two countries should support each other in participating in regional affairs and enhance cooperation within multilateral frameworks including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the East Asia Summit,” Xi told Modi.

Xi spoke about maintaining high-level communication.

“The two countries should maintain high-level communication and dialogue at all levels so as to expand consensus, improve mutual trust and deepen cooperation. They should also raise the level of cooperation in various fields and continue to push forward cooperation on major projects such as railway and industrial parks,” the President of China was quoted to have said

“China and India should consolidate public support for bilateral friendship by boosting exchanges between their political parties, local governments, think tanks, cultural bodies and media organisations,” Xi said.

Xinhua quoted Modi too as having in spoken in general statements.

“For his part, Modi said it is in the two countries’ as well as the region’s common interests for India and China to maintain frequent high-level exchanges and strategic communication. India and China have the responsibility to join hands and turn the 21st century into an Asian century.”

“India is willing to strengthen cooperation with China within multilateral frameworks including BRICS and the SCO,” Modi said, adding that his country supports China in hosting the BRICS summit next year.

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