External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, while speaking at a United Nations Security Council open debate on threats from terrorism on Tuesday, laid down an eight-point “action plan” to counter terror worldwide. The speech was aimed not only at Pakistan but also saw references made to China, even though neither of the two countries were mentioned. The minister wanted double standards discarded in the battle against terrorism, so that no distinction can be made between “good terrorist” and “bad terrorist”. He talked about reforming the “working methods of the Committees dealing with Sanctions and Counter Terrorism” and demanded that the “practice of placing blocks and holds on listing requests without any rhyme or reason must end”. This can be seen in the context of China repeatedly using its veto power to block all attempts to get Pakistani Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist, even though his terrorist organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), was already on the list of a UNSC sanctions committee. It took India around a decade to get Azhar designated as a “global terrorist” because of China’s repeated objections to lift the hold on the blacklisting of Azhar.
Incidentally, the sanctions committee that had designated Azhar as a global terrorist in 2019 was the UNSC’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee. As it happens, just a few days ago, news came that India, which has become a non-permanent member of the UNSC from 1 January, did not get to chair the 1267 committee apparently because of Chinese objections. India, during its two-year stint at the UNSC, will head the Taliban sanctions committee, the counter-terrorism committee and the Libya sanctions committee, but not the 1267 Al Qaeda committee. It is more than a coincidence that Pakistan, with China’s backing, tried to use the 1267 committee to get four Indian nationals sanctioned as global terrorists, but its efforts went in vain as other UNSC members blocked Pakistan’s move. Considering this is the sanctions committee that is likely to handle the cases of Pakistani terrorists—especially those operating on Pakistan’s eastern border, against India—it should not come as a surprise that China would block India from chairing it. China and Pakistan are likely to make the 1267 committee their playing field and India will have to be on its toes to pre-empt any anti India moves made there. Not that chairing the Taliban committee is any less significant, given the strategic importance of Afghanistan for India to ensure a quiet neighbourhood, and also, given the quantum of investments—a few billion dollars—made by India in that country. Pakistan has been trying to elbow India out of Afghanistan, even as it leads the United States up the garden path with the promise of peace with the Taliban. We also need to factor in the matter of Taliban-linked terrorist groups such as the Haqqani network targeting Indian assets in Afghanistan, and we know why the Taliban committee matters for India.
The bottom line is, China’s actions against India in the UNSC are mala fide in nature. Also, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Chinese are hand-in-glove with Pakistan when it comes to sponsoring terrorism against India. There were reports last year that China was working with Pakistan to revive the terror group Al Badr to incite acts of terrorism against India. This was being done as the terror groups directed against India, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and JeM, are designated as international terrorist groups, and Al Badr could stay under the radar at a time when Pakistan is trying to come out of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) grey list. In fact, there have been reports that China has been cutting deals with other Pakistani terror groups as well, so that they do not attack Chinese assets in Pakistan, especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Let’s also not forget China’s active involvement in instigating trouble in the Northeast by funding different militant groups there. It is a different matter that all of China’s Frankenstein monsters will come back to haunt it sooner or later.
Point number seven in EAM Jaishanker’s “action plan” on terrorism says that “combating terrorist financing will only be as effective as the weakest jurisdiction” and in this context how the “Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should continue to identify and remedy weaknesses in anti-money laundering and counter-terror”. The problem with “jurisdictions” such as Pakistan is that its cooperation with FATF is only in name—a few arrests are made ahead of FATF plenary sessions and groups are banned, but the same groups are allowed to operate under different names and the arrested terrorists continue to be “free” while in prison and are released soon after the plenary session gets over. Now that an FATF session is coming up in February, forget about Pakistan going into the black list, we should be concerned about it coming out of the grey list, because according to FATF’s October meeting, Pakistan had only six of 27 conditions to fulfil to be a part of the white list. If Pakistan comes out of the grey list, it will be a travesty and will prove how ineffective bodies such as FATF are. There are too many weaknesses in the international systems that are supposed to counter terrorism and both China and Pakistan are adept at gaming these systems. As EAM Jaishankar said, the need of the hour is for the UN to “credibly address the menace of terrorism” and to “ensure effective action”. For this to happen, the international bodies first need to reform themselves.