‘India’s evidence on Azhar not solid’

India has not provided “solid evidence” against Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar for Beijing to support the application to ban him at the UN, China said on Friday, adding that its stand on the matter is ruled by objectivity.

The issue of China repeatedly blocking India’s move to ban Azhar under protocols of the UN Security Council is likely to feature in upcoming Sino-India strategic talks in Beijing on February 22.

India blames JeM for last year’s militant attacks at an army base in Uri in J&K and also at an air force base in Pathankot.

“China upholds principles of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism and takes part in relevant discussions. Whether last year’s application by India or this year’s by relevant country our position is consistent,” foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said. “Our criteria is only one. We need solid evidence. If there is solid evidence the application can be moved...” he said.

“…the latest development is, relevant countries have made another application with committee. Relevant members of committee are in consultation and relevant parties have failed to reach consensus so far.”

Earlier this month, China had said there was no consensus among countries to include terror suspect Azhar in the list of UN-designated terrorists.

Besides Azhar, the issue of India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will also come up .China’s stand on that isn’t changing either, Geng said.

“As for India’s entry into NSG we have said many times this is a multilateral issue. We stick to two-step approach namely — NSG members need to arrive at a set of principles for the entry of NSG by non-NPT state parties and then move forward discussions of specific cases,” he said.

On the strategic dialogue, he said it will be a platform to manage differences.