Russia, India and China rally against terror, fail to name Pakistan groups

New Delhi: The foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) — Sergey Lavrov, Sushma Swaraj and Wang Yi — held trilateral talks in the Capital on Monday on a host of issues but Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) were not specifically named in the RIC joint communique that was issued on Monday. However, the Communique did state that the three countries “agree to strengthen cooperation to take decisive and concerted actions against globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities” and that the three countries “condemn all forms of terrorism and all terrorists, terror entities and organisations listed by the UN Security Council”.

Both the LeT and the JeM are UN-proscribed terror outfits. Indian Government sources said the condemnation of terror and all UN-proscribed outfits in the Communique included the two terror outfits even though they were not mentioned by name.

However, just three months ago, the two Pakistan-based terrorist organisations had been named — as groups indulging in violence — in a joint statement at the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) Summit in China’s Xiamen city, indicating that the Chinese may have somewhat hardened their stand since then. China had once again recently blocked efforts led by India, the US, Britain and France to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN although the JeM itself has already been banned by the UN.

Ms Swaraj, however, raised the terrorism issue strongly during the RIC talks, saying terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba “directly undermine international peace and security and endanger ongoing efforts to strengthen the global economy and ensure sustainable growth and development”.

After a separate bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Ms, Swaraj said the two countries (India and China) agreed that they “should further strengthen our mutual trust to develop a better understanding”.