China comes to Pakistan”s aid. AFP

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 17

Barely a day after the BRICS Summit concluded with India using the opportunity to raise the menace of cross-border terrorism from across the border, China stoutly defended Pakistan, making it clear it was opposed to a specific country or religion being linked with terrorism. To rub it in, China pointed to the ‘great sacrifice’ made by its “all-weather friend” Islamabad in combating terrorism.For India, that was much enthused over the hosting of a successful BRICS Summit followed by a BRICS-Bimstec outreach summit with the primary agenda of isolating Pakistan, today’s strong defence of Pakistan by China is likely to inject a dose of realism back into the Indian policy.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying briefed the media at Beijing today. Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments at BRICS, referring to Pakistan as the ‘mothership of terrorism,’ she said China’s stand on counter-terrorism remained consistent. “In the same way we oppose linking terrorism with any specific country or religion,” she said.To another question, she said India and Pakistan were “all victims of terrorism” and that Islamabad had made a “great sacrifice to combat terrorism and this needs to be recognised by the international community.”         The Goa Declaration issued at the end of the BRICS Summit had made only a general reference to terrorism without any mention of specific terrorist groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) that are based in Pakistan.

Sterling failure: Cong

• “There is a reference to everything in the Goa Declaration except Pakistan. Where the government is supposed to speak, it has failed. The Goa Declaration is a sterling failure of the government talking of isolating Pakistan after the Uri attacks.” —Manish Tewari, Congress