India had global support, says Sushma Swaraj on Masood Azhar listing 

A day after China blocked the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar under United Nations terror list and opposition Congress lashed out at Centre, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday in series of tweets claimed India got support from the global community for the move.

Sushma Swaraj highlighted how from 2009 to 2019 a growing number of countries backed India for the listing of Masood Azhar under the United Nations' security council's (UNSC) 1267 committee.

In 2009, India was the lone proposer while in 2016 India's proposal was co-sponsored by the UK, US and France and in 2017 US, UK and France moved the proposal. By 2019 proposal was moved the US, UK, France and co-sponsored by Australia, Bangladesh, Italy and Japan and supported by 14 out 15 members of the UNSC, she said.

"In 2019, the proposal was moved by USA, France and UK and supported by 14 of the 15 UN Security Council Members and also co-sponsored by Australia, Bangladesh, Italy and Japan - non-members of the Security Council, " she said in a tweet.
 
All four times China blocked the proposal but from 2009 to 2019 a growing number of countries agreed with New Delhi on the issue of terror and on the listing of Masood Azhar.

This development comes in the backdrop of Congress President Rahul Gandhi slamming the central government for not able to list Azhar despite PM Modi's claims of good ties with China which includes an informal Wuhan summit which saw PM Modi travelling to China to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Sushma Swaraj in a tweet said, "leaders who describe this as our diplomatic failure may see for themselves that in 2009, India was alone. In 2019, India had worldwide support."

Meanwhile, France has announced it will freeze the assets of Masood Azhar and will ask the European Union to include Azhar in the list of persons involved in terror attacks.