Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said both India and China face the threat of growing extremism and terrorism whose source ‘is in the same region’, in a veiled reference to terror networks in Pakistan. Modi, while addressing students at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, asserted that India and China face instability in their ‘shared neighbourhood’ that can threaten the security and slow down the economies of the two countries. “The spreading tide of extremism and terrorism is a threat we both face; for both, its source is in the same region,” he said in an apparent reference to the cross-border terrorism faced by India and China originating in Pakistan.
Terror strikes in India such as the 26/11 Mumbai attacks have often been traced to Pakistan while unrest in China’s Xinjiang province is many times linked to separatists trained in camps in Pakistan. “We must also deal with the changing character of terrorism that has made it less predictable and more diffuse. We source a large part of our energy from the same region that faces instability and uncertain future,” Modi said.