Asian Defence News

Pakistani prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif  on a tour to China.

Assurance to China can be seen as a acceptance by Pakistan about the presence of terrorists of East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Pakistan. What remains to be seen is if Pakistan will use the East Turkestan Islamic Movement bogeyman to get donations and weapons from the Chinese establishment like it did from the US.







Pakistan will help China with its fight against extremists which Beijing says are active in its unruly far western region of Xinjiang, the country’s prime minister said on Saturday during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.China, Pakistan’s only major ally in the region, has long urged Islamabad to weed out what it says are militants from Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home to a lethal mix of militant groups, including the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif told Xi that his country would “continue to resolutely fight the East Turkestan Islamic Movement terrorist forces”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement following the meeting in Beijing.Pakistan will increase its coordination with China on Afghanistan too, so as to “jointly maintain regional peace and stability”, Sharif said.Pakistan will also do all it can to guarantee the safety of Chinese companies and workers in the country, he added, who have in the past been attacked by militants.