New Delhi, April 21 (IANS): India has told China there cannot be two standards for dealing with terrorism, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday.
The comment comes in the backdrop of India's protest on China's move to put on hold New Delhi's attempt to list Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Masood Azhar on the UN terror list.
The US, Britain and France had strongly supported the move.
Parrikar said he raised the issue during his visit to China. "I said there can't be differentiation (vis-a-vis) terrorists. All terrorists are the same and they need to be dealt with in the same manner."
The minister spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the Naval Commanders Conference here.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had also raised the issue with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow this week.
Talking about his visit to China, Parrikar said the talks were held in a "frank and positive" atmosphere and both sides agreed to step up interactions.
He said "better communication" was the need of the hour. "We agreed to increase our interactions and better management of borders."
He said the "best solution" for border disputes was to finalise the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as different perception of the border leads to what is perceived as transgression.
"Because of different perception, technical transgression happens. We feel it is traversing, but they (Chinese troops) are just patrolling. They come and go," he said.
The minister stressed that such incidents had come down.
Rafale deal may be closed soon:The Rafale deal with France is in advanced stage and the government intends to close it quite soon, Parrikar said.
Asked if a final agreement had been reached on the price for buying 36 Rafale jets, the minister said: "I can only tell the deal is in an quite advanced stage. We intend to close it quite soon. But we can't say negotiations are over until we sign it (agreement) or it is cleared by the cabinet."
The minister was asked about a post made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its Facebook page and Twitter handle saying the deal had been finalised at $8.8 billion.
An image posted on the BJP Facebook page said the Narendra Modi government "saved $3.2 billion (Rs 21,000 crore) out of the $12 billion (Rs 80,000 crore) deal".
In 2012, India decided to ink a deal for 126 Rafale jets.
As the deal could not work out, another deal for purchasing 36 Rafale combat jets in fly-away condition was inked during the prime minister's visit to France in April last year.
