China on Friday defended Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts after Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Islamabad as a “terror export factory”. Beijing’s defence of Pakistan comes days before India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s visit to China for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting.
“Terrorism is the enemy faced by all,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. “The international community should work together to fight against it. We hope the international community could support the efforts made by Pakistan in counter-terrorism and forge effective cooperation with it in that regard.”
Swaraj is scheduled to visit China on April 24 to participate in a meeting with foreign ministers of other countries. She will also meet her Chinese Wang Yi on Sunday. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also scheduled to meet the defence ministers representing the organisation’s member nations. Apart from India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the group.
On Wednesday, Modi had said that India would not tolerate those who export terror. “When someone has put a terror export factory in place and makes attempts to attack us from the behind, Modi knows how to answer in the same language,” Modi had said during a town hall discussion with the Indian diaspora at Central Hall Westminster in London.
Modi had justified the “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control in September 2016 while citing that it was a tit-for-tat response. The prime minister is scheduled to attend the organisation’s summit in China in June.
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