A day after Beijing withdrew its opposition to a United States-backed proposal to grey list Pakistan in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), India went ahead to congratulate China for becoming the vice-chair of the global body. In a congratulatory message, the Indian side hoped China would uphold and support the objective of the watchdog in a balanced and objective way.
“Congratulations to China on its election as Vice President of Financial Action Task Force at the FATF plenary meeting on 23 February 2018. We remain hopeful that China would uphold and support the objectives and standards of FATF in a balanced, objective, impartial and holistic way,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Twitter.
In the plenary meeting of FATF in Paris on Friday, China, along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, first opposed a move by US to put Pakistan on grey list for its support to terror groups and not doing enough to prevent them from carrying out attacks on other countries. However, after US worked on Saudi Arabia to withdraw its opposition, China also backed out from its earlier position when the US made the second attempt to fix Pakistan. The US holds that Pakistan is not taking action against terror groups such as the Haqqani Network, Taliban and other terror groups like the lashkar-e-Taiyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Pakistan has been given time till June to prepare an action plan against terror groups operating from its soil failing which it will face sanctions. Pakistan was on FATF’s grey list from 2012 to 2015. The FATF in a report on Friday named nine countries with strategic deficiencies. These included Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia.
The FATF was set up in 1989 with the primary goal of setting standards to combat money laundering, but in 2001 its mandate was expanded to include countering terror financing. It can take action such as financial restrictions against any country.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing from 23-24 February for diplomatic consultations with senior Chinese officials. He held talks with the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, and called on Foreign Minister Wang Yi and State Councillor Yang Jiechi. The visit comes after the foreign offices of India and China agreed to increase the level of dialogue and engagement following the Doklam standoff.
In a statement, the MEA said that during the consultations, the two sides reviewed recent developments in bilateral relations, including high level exchanges, and discussed the agenda for bilateral engagement in the coming months.
Both sides agreed upon the need to expedite various dialogue mechanisms in order to promote multifaceted cooperation across diverse fields of India-China engagement.
They noted the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s concerns, interests and aspirations.
Both sides underlined that as two major countries, sound development of relations between India and China is a factor of stability in the world today, the statement added.