China welcomes FATF decision to remove Pakistan from grey list

Beijing: Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin has welcomed the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove Pakistan from its “grey list” and said, this also showed international support and recognition of Pakistan’s endeavor in this regard.

“China welcomes the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove Pakistan from its “grey list” and would like to send congratulations to Pakistan,” he said during his regular briefing.

He remarked that this had been made possible thanks to Pakistan’s effort to firmly follow through on its political commitment and continuously improve and enhance its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system over the past five years despite the difficulties.

“This also shows international support and recognition of Pakistan’s endeavor in this regard,” he added.

He said that the Chinese side looked forward to Pakistan’s positive contributions to advancing international counter-terrorism cooperation and protecting the security of the international financial system.

It is worth mentioning that the recently-concluded Plenary of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in October declared in an open statement the removal of Pakistan from its “grey list”.

FATF President Raja Kumar informed that the taskforce conducted an onsite visit at the end of August before deciding to remove Pakistan from the list.

“Pakistan has made significant improvements to strengthen the effectiveness of this framework for combating terrorism financing,” Kumar added.