More Details Emerge About Deal Struck With China To Put Pakistan On Terror Financing Watchlist

The United States struck a deal with China to get it to withdraw its objection to Pakistan’s greylisting by the Financial Actin Task Force (FATF) for not doing enough to rein in its terror proxies, various outlets reported on Friday. However, the details of the deal, which was reached after China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia initially blocked Pakistan’s greylisting for terror financing, were not revealed.

Now, a report in the Indian Express has brought to light more details regarding the deals reached between the two countries. According to the report, Washington offered Beijing the vice-presidentship of the FATF starting 1 July. As the Vice-President of the task force is also the FATF President-designate, China will head the organisation for one year starting July 2019, the report says.

While initial reports said that India had played a crucial role in persuading China, the India Express report claims New Delhi was not directly involved.

The US also convinced Saudi Arabia, which reportedly changed its stance to get Washington’s support for its bid to become a full member of the FATF in June.

Turkey, a strong ally of Pakistan, continued to oppose the proposal sponsored by the US, France and the United Kingdom to put Pakistan on the list.

Talking about the move, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells said the US took the initiative partly due to Islamabad’s failure to act against Jamaat-ud-Dawa head Hafiz Saeed.

“When we saw terrorists like Hafiz Saeed be released for the sixth time from house arrest or saw charitable arms of Lashkar-i-Taiba or Jaish-i-Mohammad operate freely, sometimes in front of police stations doing fund-raising exercises, it obviously raises serious concerns,” Wells said in an interview.