31 December 2004	Friday	18 Ziqa'ad 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Pakistan supports joint efforts to combat the scourge of international terrorism but believes that in such endeavour no red lines should be crossed.

This view was articulated by top government officials when their reaction was sought to the Indian army chief's reported offer to the Chinese defence minister for 'joint military exercise in non-traditional security' this week.

Notably the news of this offer comes from Beijing two days after Pakistan formally proposed to India, at the secretary-level talks here, prior notification of military exercises and not to conduct joint exercises with any third country in disputed areas.

"Cooperation to counter menace of terrorism should continue, but we hope that no attempt would be made to cross red lines," a senior foreign ministry official said, pointing to Pakistan's recent suggestion that joint military exercises should not be conducted in disputed territories.

Another official said given the maturity of the Chinese leadership it was unlikely that it would go for joint drills with India in any disputed territory. "We are confident that China will never cross red lines or take any step in this regard after due scrutiny," the official asserted.

The venue of the proposed joint Sino-India military exercise has not been indicated so far. While there is no official word yet from Beijing on its response to the Indian invitation, there are indications that China would be receptive to the offer.

A Chinese source here told Dawn on Thursday that Beijing was likely to respond positively to the Indian offer, underlining that it would be more of a symbolic gesture.

"China thinks such manoeuvres cannot be harmful given that the two countries have not had military confrontation for two decades," he maintained. All interested countries within the framework of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), which includes China and India, conduct joint counter-terrorism exercises from time to time.

A Chinese strategic expert in Islamabad remarked: "We hope in future Pakistan and India will also have joint counter-terrorism manoeuvres." China has given assurances to Pakistan several times that the growing Sino-India relations are not being built at the expense of Pakistan, maintaining that there was a qualitative difference between the two sets of relationships.

Sino-Pakistan relations, the Chinese government maintains, have separate and unique trajectory stemming from decades of strategic cooperation. Pakistan and China in the past three years have had close cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Two Sino-Pakistan joint anti-terrorism military exercises have been conducted in the past one year, it is learnt. In 2002, the two countries established a high-level mechanism in the form of a working group for consultation and dialogue on Counter-terrorism.