By IANS,
Beijing : China has an influence over Pakistan and the BJP expects Beijing to put pressure on Islamabad to stop exporting terror to India and to act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack, Nitin Gadkari, the chief of India’s main opposition party, told Chinese leaders here Friday.
Gadkari, who is the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president to visit China, conveyed to the Chinese leaders his party’s serious concern over Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism and told them that there was strong public opinion in India against Beijing’s development projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Gadkari, in his wide-ranging talks with leaders of the Communist Party of China, also told them that Beijing’s reported attempts to block Pakistan-based terrorist outfits like Jamaat-ud-Dawah from being black-listed by the UN was having an adverse impact on the BJP’s efforts to improve people-to-people contacts between the two countries, a statement said.
The BJP president is on a five-day goodwill visit to China along with a delegation of senior party leaders. He held discussions with Ai Ping, the Chinese vice-minister in the international department of the Communist Party of China, and also met Li Changchun, a senior leader of the nine-member Standing Committee of the political Bureau of the CPC.
Gadkari told the Chinese leadership that terrorism was a common concern for mankind.
“Terrorism does not recognize any boundaries and there are very strong growing inter-linkages amongst terror groups,” Gadkari said, and hoped that both India and China would work closely with the international community to strengthen the global framework against terrorism.
To Gadkari’s urging China to use its good offices with Pakistan to pressure it to stop exporting terror to India and act against the perpetrators of all acts of terrorism on Indian soil, including those behind the Mumbai attack, the Chinese leaders shared the BJP leader’s concern.
The Chinese leaders said Beijing “understands the importance of all the issues raised by the BJP president”.
Gadkari also took up with the Chinese leaders the issue of stapled visas for the people of Arunanchal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and conveyed his party’s strong position on the issue. He hoped Beijing would resolve the matter at the earliest as it was damaging China’s image among the Indian people.
Gadkari also took up China’s military assistance and the supply of nuclear reactors to Pakistan and said these did not augur well for strengthening bilateral relations between India and China.
The BJP chief told the Chinese leaders that the party believes that the festering boundary issue should be resolved through peaceful negotiations and in a fair, reasonable, mutually acceptable and pro-active manner.
The BJP delegation includes two general secretaries, Thawarchand Gehlot and Vijay Goel, joint-organizing secretary, Saudan Singh, and secretaries Arti Mehra and Laxman Kova, Vinay Sahasrabudhe and Vijay Jolly.