China has for the fourth time put a technical hold on a proposal to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist at the United Nations. Standing solidly behind its Pakistan, China ignored international efforts to clamp down on cross-border terrorism. 

This is a major setback to Indian efforts to proscribe the Pulwama attack mastermind.

In an official statement, MEA wrote, "We are disappointed by this outcome. This has prevented action by the international community to designate the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), an active terrorist organization which has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February 2019."

"We are grateful for the efforts of the Member States who moved the designation proposal and the unprecedented number of all other Security Council members as well as non-members who joined as co-sponsors. We will continue to pursue all available avenues to ensure that terrorist leaders who are involved in heinous attacks on our citizens are brought to justice," the statement asserted. 

Earlier, the entire UNSC had in a statement condemned the Pulwama terror strike and held Jaish responsible for it. While the US strongly pushed India's case with China, Russia tried its best to convince Beijing. 

China, a permanent veto-wielding member of the UNSC and Pakistan’s “all-weather” ally, blocked previous attempts in 2009, 2016 and 2017.