India, China dicussed issue of listing Masood Azhar as a terrorist at strategic dialogue in Beijing.
India and China made no headway on critical issues including New Delhi's entry into the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group or NSG and its demand to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist by United Nations, at their first strategic dialogue in Beijing today.
China has vetoed repeated attempts to blacklist Masood Azhar at UN, the mastermind of the Pathankot attack in January last year in which seven soldiers were killed, saying the resolution lacks "solid evidence".
"The extent of JeM chief Masood Azhar's actions are 'well documented' and the 'burden of proof' is not on India", Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told reporters after the talks today.
Last year, China put a technical hold twice on India's application to the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council and again blocked a resolution moved by the US - backed by France and the UK - in January.
Mr Jaishankar said India has underlined to China the growing international support for India on the issue. "On the issue of Azhar, we again explained to them rationale for that application and pointed out that this was being pursued by other countries, not by India alone, and the fact that other countries were pressing this application showed broad international support for this," he said.
China has also been opposing India's membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group or NSG. Mr Jaishankar said today that differences still remain. "On NSG, the Chinese side underlined that they were open to India's application for membership but they had their view of procedures and processes and these were somewhere different from where we are at the moment, and where we think most of the group is at the moment," he said.
Ahead of the talks, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had said, "I am certain by raising the level of this strategic dialogue the two sides will be able to enhance their strategic communication, reduce misunderstanding.'