China backs Sri Lankan fight against LTTE

BEIJING: China on Tuesday came out in support of the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to wipe out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and apprehend its leader V. Prabakaran.
It also backed the decision of the Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prachanda, to induct Maoist forces in the country’s army.

“Both Nepal and Sri Lanka are friendly to China. We support the efforts of their governments to safeguard national integrity while ensuring security and political stability,” Jiang Yu, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry said at a press briefing. She was responding to a question about the end of the 24 hour deadline for surrender given to Prabhakaran by the Sri Lankan government.

The statement comes at a time when relationship between China and Nepal has become stronger than ever before. China recently promised to enhance its annual assistance to Nepal by 50 per cent to 150 million yuan ($23 million). It is also considering investing in hydropower projects in the Himalayan kingdom bordering India.

Beijing is also pushing the international community to enhance financial support to help Somalia sort out its political problems and tackle the menace of pirates, who have been harassing foreign ships sailing past the country/ China is among the countries who have sent war ships to counter the challenge posed by the pirates.

"We expect positive outcome from the international donors’ conference on Somalia so as to provide substantive support for the Somali political process," Jiang said while referring to an international donor’s conference in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday which would gather representatives from the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union.

(Times of India)