NEW DELHI, Aug 27: A senior Chinese official told an Indian news channel on Tuesday that President Pervez Musharraf was firmly fighting terrorism in his country, and said nuclear ties between Beijing and Islamabad did not involve any weapons-related programme.
Wang Yi, China’s Vice-Foreign Minister and one of China’s fourth-generation leaders expressing Beijing’s support for Islamabad, claimed that President Musharraf is firmly leading a crackdown on terrorism.
“After the terrorist attacks (of Sept 11), we noticed that the Pakistani leadership, including President Musharraf, totally condemned the attacks. We believe that in terms of combating terrorist activities, the policy of the Pakistani government is clear-cut and their attitude is very firm,” Wang Yi told Star News in an interview in Beijing.
While expressing China’s support for a bilateral solution of Kashmir, he also addressed the contentious issue of the Pakistan-China arms relationship.
The Chinese vice-foreign minister said that there has been no cooperation between China and Pakistan in the field of nuclear weapons.
“We have cooperated only in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and this has been carried out under the monitoring of the IAEA. There hasn’t been any dimension in our relations with Pakistan that is against India. I also believe that the development of comprehensive friendly relations with India will not affect our traditional relations with Pakistan,” he said.
Star News said Wang Yi would travel to New Delhi next month to co-chair the Joint Working Group on the boundary dispute that involves about 125,000 sq kms of land in three different sectors. The Eastern Sector, 90,000 sq kms, comprises most of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
The Central Sector is relatively small, just 2,000 kms. The Western Sector, the most contentious 33,000 sq kms, includes the Aksai Chin area in Kashmir.
“We have resolved the boundary question with almost all our neighbours with land borders with China and we believe that resolution of the boundary question between India and China is very important,” said Wang Yi.—JN
