China and Russia yesterday agreed to further strengthen the role of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the battle
against terrorism.
President Jiang Zemin, during a meeting with his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin - calling a June pact signed in
Shanghai to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism as
"foresighted" - said the task has become more urgent under the
current conditions.
The Shanghai pact will conduce to the SCO's more effective
crackdown on the three forces in the region, Jiang added.
The organization was upgraded from the former Shanghai Five in
June. It also groups Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan.
Putin is presently in Shanghai to attend the APEC Economic Leaders'
Meeting over the weekend. Apart from economic issues,
anti-terrorism has been listed as a topic in the wake of the
terrorist attack on the United States in September. Most countries,
including China and Russia, support the fight against terrorism - a
threat also faced by China and Russia.
According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jiang and Putin
agreed that the Chechen and East Turkistan terrorist forces also
personify international terrorism, and should be sternly opposed
and crushed.
The Chinese Foreign
Ministry said on Friday, when responding to the European
Parliament's permission allowing the East Turkistan National
Conference to hold a seminar on its premises, said the force for
East Turkistan is one of terrorism, with the objective of splitting
China.
The ministry accused the force of closely colluding with
international terrorist organizations to undertake violent
terrorist acts in China and its neighboring countries.
China and Russia share common interests and identical stands on
anti-terrorism, said Jiang during yesterday's meeting.
He
reiterated China's opposition to all forms of terrorism, regardless
of its target, time and place of occurrence.
Jiang added that China supports anti-terrorism actions but stressed
that such actions should be clearly targeted to avoid causing
innocent casualties.
He
also said that anti-terrorism actions must adhere to the purposes
and principles of the United Nations' Charter and the norms of
international laws, and fully respect the leading role of the UN and its Security Council.
He
called for a consistent attitude and standard to be adopted on
anti-terrorism.
(China Daily October 21,
2001)