New Delhi: Upset over China’s veto of its move to have the UN designate Pathankot terror attack mastermind and chief of militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed Masood Azhar as a proscribed terrorist has clearly not gone down well with India.
Sources say India is looking to tighten the friendly, liberalised norms for Chinese companies looking to invest in India.
A view emerging among the higher-ups counters the liberalised norms for FDI inflow from China, resulting in around 25 investment proposals being cleared in sectors including telecom, power etc, in the past two years.
The understanding now emerging after China’s blockade to India’s efforts which it considers of national importance is that India needs to restore the grounds of national security imposed on Chinese investments previously.
Since the Narendra Modi-led government came to power, it has taken some key initiatives with respect to Chinese investments. One such move was to review China’s status as a “country of concern”. The shift in stance resulted in faster clearances to Chinese FDI proposals which were earlier rejected on grounds of national security.
The clearance to telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei to set up a manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu was one of the major investments being cleared by the Indian government.
Meanwhile, India is also likely to raise the UN veto issue officially with China when External Affiars minister Sushma Swaraj meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi when she travels to to Moscow later this week to attend RIC (Russia-India-China) ministerial meeting.
India, it is learnt, has said it is “disappointed” with China’s move to block India’s efforts regarding Masood Azhar following the Pathankot terror attack. Sources said, India was looking to raise the issue at the political level at the first given opportunity.
A bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries is excpected at the sidelines of the event where the issue is likely to be raised, the sources added.
This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.
The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan again.
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, saying that its stand was "based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness" with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.
Expressing its strong "disappointment" over the development, India said it finds it "incomprehensible" that while the Pakistan-based JeM was listed by the UN Committee for its well known terror activities and links to the Al Qaeda, the designation of the group's "main leader, financier and motivator" has been put on a "technical hold".
(With PTI inputs)
