No good or bad terrorist, President tells Beijing

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

Beijing, May 26

President Pranab Mukherjee today reached out to China over resolving differences saying it was “a test of our political acumen”. The tone was distinctly conciliatory, and China also said both countries need to be “realistic” when it comes to resolving the differences.

In the morning, the President addressed a lecture at Peking University where he said: “I consider it a test of our political acumen when we are called upon to draw upon our civilisational wisdom and resolve these differences to the mutual satisfaction of both sides.”

“Both sides should work with the aim of ensuring that we do not burden our coming generations by leaving our unresolved problems to them. I am confident that by ensuring that these matters are not aggravated and by remaining sensitive to mutual concerns, we can minimise our differences and maximise our convergences,” he said.

The President later met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and National People’s Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang. At a media briefing, Xiao Qian, DG, Asia at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, pointed in the same direction indicating both nations had agreed to keep talking while realising that the issues between the two should not come in the way of development and closer co-operation.

The issue of counter-terrorism also came up during the President’s meetings with the Chinese leadership.

The Chinese side said while the issue of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar was not raised, the two countries discussed counter-terrorism and agreed to co-operation exchanges under the framework of the United Nations, BRICS and other international agencies.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar while briefing journalists said India conveyed that both India and China were affected by terrorism and that there was no such thing as a good terrorist or a bad terrorist.

He added that both nations must have an understanding, both bilateral and multilateral, in fighting terrorism and that both nations would strike together on this in the UN. The President’s visit to China is primarily being seen as a signal from both leaderships that they are committed to talking and to strengthening the relationship. The contentious issues will take their time to get sorted out but the talks must continue.