China defends ally Pakistan after Trump criticism
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has defended its ally Pakistan after U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States could no longer be silent about Pakistan’s “safe havens” for militants and warned it had much to lose by continuing to “harbor terrorists”.
Asked about Trump’s speech, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Pakistan was on the front line in the struggle against terrorism and had made “great sacrifices” and “important contributions” in the fight.
“We believe that the international community should fully recognize Pakistan’s anti-terrorism,” she told a daily news briefing.
“We are happy to see Pakistan and the United States carry out anti-terror cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, and work together for security and stability in the region and world.”
China and Pakistan consider each other “all-weather friends” and have close diplomatic, economic and security ties.
China has its own security concerns in the region, in particular any links between militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Islamist groups China blames for violence in its far western region of Xinjiang.
“We hope the relevant U.S. policies can help promote the security, stability and development of Afghanistan and the region,” Hua said. U.S. military anywhere in the world,” White said.
Pakistan denies that it provides safe haven to terrorists, often pointing to the operation launched in 2014 to clear groups such as the Haqqanis from the Waziristan border region with Afghanistan. The operation was launched after the June 2014 attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, which was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban and the I s l a m i c M ove m e n t of Uzbekistan.
“To scapegoat Pakistan will not help in stabilizing Afghanistan,” the country’s National Security Committee said in a statement Thursday after a meeting on Trump’s Afghanistan strategy. “On its own part, Pakistan has taken indiscriminate actions against all terrorist networks and sacrificed tens of thousands of troops and civilians in this fight.”
But experts say Pakistan does continue to provide the Taliban and the Haqqani network with refuge and support for two main reasons.
First and foremost in Pakistan’s calculus is using the terrorist groups as a counter to archrival India. New Delhi is Afghanistan’s biggest regional donor, giving more than $ 3 billion in assistance since 2001 and building the country’s new p a rl i a m e n t building, hydropower plants, dams and 2,500 miles of road.
“The elephant in the room is the India-Pakistan relationship,” said Moeed Yusuf, associate vice president of the Asia Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “India- Pakistan relations are only thing that Pakistan really cares about in terms of changing its behavior.”
On its own part, Pakistan has taken indiscriminate actions against all terrorist networks and sacrificed tens of thousands of troops and civilians in this fight.