India will continue to persuade China to change its stance at the UN and support its demand in designating Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar as a “terrorist” even as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj raised the matter with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Swaraj met Wang in Moscow on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China Ministerial meeting on Monday.

The Minister “raised the issue of listing of Masood Azhar in the UN 1267 Committee and emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating this challenge. It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter,” said Vikas Swarup, spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

According to sources, it was decided that the two sides would initiate a dialogue on this issue under the larger ambit of counter-terrorism initiatives, a top official told BusinessLine on condition of anonymity.

The official said this dialogue mechanism will be finalised by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval when he travels to Beijing on Wednesday.

Doval is going to Beijing for the 19th round of Special Representative talks on Sino-Indian border issues that got postponed in January in the wake of the January 2 Pathankot Air Force base attacks, which India believes was masterminded by Azhar.