April 9:
This year’s China-India counter terrorism dialogue focused on Islamic militancy and the state of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal. Navtej Sarna, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, headed the Indian delegation and State Councilor Yang Jiechi led the Chinese side. Beijing and New Delhi are both concerned that once U.S. troops leave Afghanistan the Taliban and al-Qaeda will return to challenge the government in Kabul. China is worried a destabilized Afghanistan will undermine security in Xinjiang, where the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement, remains active. The bilateral counterterrorism dialogue, which began in 2002, also covered cyber security, Defense Minister A K Antony’s upcoming visit to China, and joint Sino-Indian military exercises set for later this year, Press Trust of India reports.
April 10:
After nearly two decades of talks the Republic of China (ROC-Taiwan) and Japan have recognized each other’s “fishing rights in overlapping territories in the East China Sea,” Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports. The agreement will “expand the areas in which Taiwanese fishermen can operate an additional 4530 sq. km” free of Japanese intervention, ROC Foreign Minister David Lin said after the last round of talks in Taipei. The two sides also agreed to set up a fishing commission to handle any fishing disputes in waters near the Diaoyutai Islands. President Ma Ying-jeou’s supporters hailed the agreement as the fruits of his East China Sea peace initiative aimed at settling differences on fishing rights in the contested waters.
April 13:
China is pressuring Nepal to block Tibetans from entering the country and to crack down on the political activities of the 20,000 Tibetans already there, reports the New York Times. In the first eight months of 2012 about 400 Tibetan refugees crossed the Himalayas into Nepal, half as many as in 2011. Tighter Chinese security in Tibet and Chinese-trained Nepal border guards have reduced migration. Nepali police have begun detaining Tibetans during anti-China protests in Kathmandu and have curbed the Dalai Lama’s birthday celebrations. Kathmandu has also refused to allow 5,000 Tibetan refugees to leave for the U.S., even though Washington has agreed to grant them asylum. The crackdown began in 2008 after the Tibetan uprising. That year, 2,000-4,000 refugees reached the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees transit center in the Kathmandu Valley. That number dropped to below 600 in 2008, as Chinese security forces locked down Tibetan towns, and rose to 850 in 2009.
[Editor’s note: Dozens of Tibetans were detained in January 2012 when then-Premier Wen Jiabao made an unannounced four-hour visit to Katmandu. Wen was scheduled to visit the previous month, but it was canceled because of concerns about protests by Tibetans. During Wen’s visit, China agreed to give Nepal $1.18 billion in aid over three years.]
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry is in Beijing for two-days of talks to “devise new methods to counter terrorism.” This is the eighth round of China-Pakistan counter-terrorism talks, but the first since China’s new leadership took power. The objective of the talks, Pakistan’s The News reports, is to “work out strategy to deal with the common threat.” Islamist and separatist activities in Xinjiang, which shares a border with Pakistan, figure prominently in the talks.
April 15:
The Economic Times reports that the chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Prachanda (aka Pushpa Kamal Dahal), is in China with a delegation that includes Nepal Deputy Inspector General of Police Dan Bahadur Malla. Prachanda, who will be visiting China at the invitation of the Communist Party of China, will be the first Nepalese leader to meet Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang since they became president and premier, respectively.
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