Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

Context: Pakistan has resorted to its usual tactic of some high-profile actions in the run-up to the FATF plenary to create the impression that it was delivering on its counter-terror financing commitments.  It is again looking to China, Malaysia and Turkey to help it get off lightly for failing to fully implement an action plan to tackle terror funding when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) assesses its case in October. Ahead of FATF’s working group and plenary meetings between October 18 and 23, the Asia-Pacific Group (APG), a regional affiliate of the multilateral watchdog, reviewed Pakistan’s actions to counter-terror financing and money laundering at a virtual meeting on September 15 and 16. Pakistan is unlikely to be moved from FATF’s grey list to the black list, despite mounting frustration among the watchdog’s members over its repeated failure to deliver on the action plan. At the virtual meeting, China expectedly backed Pakistan’s actions to counter-terror financing,...