WEB DESK
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today strongly raised the issue of China blocking its bid to have Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi . Ms.Swaraj took up the issue with Wang at a bilateral meeting at Moscow on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.
In her opening remarks, Ms. Swaraj said India-China relations have seen significant improvement in the last one year and favoured frequent meetings between the two sides to step up engagement.
In his reply, Mr. Wang said both the countries need to stay focused on expanding the ties and should align strategies so as to contribute significantly to development of Asia and the world.
Ms Swaraj also discussed a range of issues of mutual interest with Wang.
Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case did not meet the requirements of the Security Council. Last July, China had similarly halted India’s move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi