China and Russia seek to reassert anti-terror role

Yahoo ^ | January 7 | Tamora Vidaillet

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China, Russia and four Central Asian states, seeking to revive their role in the global war on terror that has been led by the United States, pledged on Monday to combat terrorism in all forms at home and abroad.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation also hailed the demise of the Taliban regime, hoping it would end Afghanistan's days as a source of terror and narcotics, and stressed there should be no meddling in the country's affairs.

Analysts said the group, which also includes Tajikistan, Kyrgzstan, Tajikistan and new member Uzbekistan, unveiled few major initiatives and largely extended counter-terror measures agreed when it last met six months ago in Shanghai.

The organisation, spearheaded by China as a means of boosting its strategic influence over oil-rich Central Asia, has become a junior partner in the U.S.-led war against terror, they said.

Still, analysts said the group, which began cracking down on regional terrorism two years ahead of the September 11 attacks on the United States, could eventually emerge from the shadows once the U.S. military action winds down in Afghanistan.

"Member states hold that that the fight against terrorism should be carried out on all levels -- globally, regionally, and nationally -- free of bias and with no double standards," the group said in a joint statement.

Meeting for the first time since the former Shanghai Five welcomed Uzbekistan last June and renamed itself, the ministers also established a crisis-response mechanism under which they would meet to coordinate positions and consider joint action.

China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan stressed the group members backed each others fights against terrorism, and called for international support for their own campaigns.

"All members support the positions and efforts... of China concerning East Turkestan terrorists and of Russia concerning Chechen terrorists, and regard these efforts as part and parcel of the international fight against terrorism," he said.

China has backed the U.S.-led war on terrorism in large part due to its concerns over Muslim separatists seeking an independent state called East Turkestan in the western Xinjiang region, but United States disputes that they are terrorists.

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The statement reflected China's stances on a range of issues, a small victory for a Beijing worried about weakened influence in Central Asia since the arrival of U.S. troops in its back yard.

"The statement is a continuation of the Chinese policy on the U.S.-led war on terrorism, which is to say that we stand apart and we have a different way of doing things," said Swaran Singh, associate professor at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Group members also echoed China's stance that issues related to Afghanistan be dealt with according to U.N. provisions and that the scope of counter-terrorism not be expanded indefinitely -- which Singh noted as a significant show of support.

"I think Americans will be a little cautious after reading this statement in the sense that China has not, over time, given up its separate opinion on how the war against terrorism should be conducted," he said.

Analysts said in spite of being overshadowed by the U.S. moves in Central Asia, the group would forge on due to interests in boosting trade ties and a common counter-terror agenda as the military activity in Afghanistan gave way to reconstruction.

Founded in 1996 with the relatively modest aim of brokering border disputes, the group had evolved into an alliance primarily aimed at limiting the growth of separatist groups.

"Once the war against terrorism has settled down, which I suspect will be within six months, there will still be Islamic movements in these places which will not have been totally wiped out," said Michael Dillon, director of the centre for contemporary Chinese studies at Britain's Durham University.

"It may well be that the group moves more towards economic and trade issues which is where it started in the first place," he said.