By Ubaid Ahmed
Notwithstanding the defense against US on the issue of terrorism, China looks as if it has taken an astonishing novel turn on the subject. The declaration espoused at the recent BRICS summit in China’s Xiamen has denounced terrorism in its all forms and manifestations and also named three key Pakistan-based terrorist groups – the Haqqani network, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in a larger group of terrorist organizations blamable for violence and insecurity.
Commencing with the sheer criticism against the savagery on ‘innocent Afghan nationals’, the avowal went on to firmly backing the Afghan national government as well as the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Alongside the Pakistani terrorist groups, the declaration enumerated Taliban, Islamic State, the Al Qaeda and its partners like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
The BRICS, made out of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is as yet an untested unit of examination. . This is restricted in terms of communicated want or eagerness to lead, their capacity or ability to lead and the cogency to be a pioneer for followership or acknowledgment. However, the themes used to capture leadership of the BRICS are generally defined to copiously cover security and economic dimensions.
Nevertheless, there is an equal message for both India and Pakistan in the aforesaid declaration, and it would really be foolish calling it a diplomatic win for India reason being the realpolitik considerations are always there. Such declarations are principally consent based documents and China being the host has steered its drafting in its very own way. The language on Pakistan-based terrorist groups would have been kept out by China. Moreover, this avowal might well be viewed as a refreshment stand to India but in fact in a broader horizon it’s a well-considered shift in China’s policy with larger aims in the foresight.
Undoubtedly the decision by the host China to downrightly name terror groups has significant ramifications. To start with, the conspicuous reference to Afghanistan and the activities of the Taliban and the Haqqani amass seem, by all accounts, to be a riposte to the reported latest US arrangement on Afghanistan. Likewise in naming the Haqqani network and turning out in solid support to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), the Chinese are putting the press on Islamabad and making space for embeddings themselves into the Afghan equation.
Equally, it is not that China is cutting Pakistan free. Without a doubt, the inverse could be the situation. Beijing could well be moving Islamabad into a nearer grasp. In the wake of putting down cash through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China is looking to advance peace and solidness in the region both as a methods for getting return on its investments, and in addition dislodging the US as the main performing artist in the region China considers its fringe and a vital one as a result of its Belt Road initiatives.
Afghanistan is an inexorably profitable connection in the engineering of China’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI) particularly in South and Central Asia. Henceforth, China simply cannot let go the political instability and insecurity in the region for it keep on posing real snags to the extending Chinese cash and faculty in the region. On the other hand India for its part has explicitly rejected the BRI in its backyard even going so far as to boycott Beijing’s prized road and belt forum in May 2017. So by naming Pakistan based terror groups China has played its part in addressing one of the grievances of India and to bring it to the chequered board of BRI in consort to the regional significance that India possess.
Pakistan however is committed to fighting the dread especially against the groups mentioned in the pronouncement. Hitherto, with the foreign media guns blasting towards Pakistan, clearly Islamabad is exhibiting a frail instance of its counter terrorism endeavors to its regional and global allies. Pakistan must not wrongly dismiss motion from developing world economies. BRICS revelation recommends a global pattern Pakistan can’t stand to overlook. Pakistan also needs to make its domestic fight against terrorism more purposeful. Be that as it may, summing it up there is a bigger message in the more outspoken way to deal with terrorism noticeable in Xiamen announcement; for BRICS has a unique basis of economic growth and development which must be accomplished by inculcating peace in the region.
Ubaid Ahmed currently works as a Research Affiliate at Strategic Vision Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan
