ISLAMABAD: China on Tuesday came out in support of Pakistan’s anti-terror financing regime, days after 37-nation Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at its plenary meeting in Paris placed Pakistan on a so-called ‘grey list’ of the countries where terrorist outfits were still allowed to raise funds. “In recent years, Pakistan has made important progress in actively strengthening financial regulations to combat terror financing,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press briefing in Beijing. When asked about reports whether China had refused to bail out Pakistan at the FATF meeting, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Pakistan’s contributions in the area of countering terror financing were there for all to see. “China highly recognises that [Pakistan’s contributions], and hopes all relevant parties of the international community could arrive at an objective and fair conclusion on that,” Lu said. Talking about Pakistan’s overall role in the war against terrorism, the spokesman said the Pakistani people have sacrificed ‘enormously’ for the counterterrorism fight. “Their hard efforts, both in terms of ground operations and in the field of terrorism financing, are there for all to see.” Lu reiterated that China has been calling on the international community to evaluate Pakistan’s efforts against militancy ‘in an objective and fair way, instead of just pointing fingers at Pakistan out of bias’. “As an all-weather strategic cooperative partner for Pakistan, China will continue to enhance communication, coordination and cooperation with Pakistan on counter-terrorism,” he said.
Published in Daily Times, February 28th 2018.
