World shares India’s concern on terror; hope to use UNSC to strengthen framework on terrorism: Envoy
United Nations: India hopes to use its two-year term in the powerful UNSC to bolster the framework on terrorism to address issues such as the misuse of information and communications technology by terrorist groups and stem the flow of terror financing, the country’s envoy to the UN has said.
India has always been advocating a “zero tolerance” approach to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti told PTI in an interview after India overwhelmingly won the election to the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member.
“Terrorism is naturally going to be one of our main priorities during our term on the Council,” he said.
India, the endorsed candidate from the Asia-Pacific States grouping, garnered 184 votes out of the total 192 polled in the election on Wednesday.
Along with India, Norway, Ireland and Mexico will also join the UNSC as the non-permanent members for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2021.
Tirumurti said India hopes to use its two-year term in the UNSC “to strengthen the normative and operative frameworks on terrorism to effectively strengthen the multilateral system to address issues such as the misuse of information and communications technology by terrorist entities, disrupt the nexus with sponsors and transnational organised criminal rackets and stemming the flow of terrorist finance.
“The world shares our concern. The UN itself has recognised this when it set up the UN Office of counter-terrorism in 2016,” he said.
India has consistently underlined the importance of global frameworks such as the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and need for the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) to combat the terror-crime nexus.
At the UN, India has given a clarion call for strengthening the efforts to adopt the long-pending global convention on international terrorism.
India proposed a draft document on the CCIT at the UN in 1986, but it has not been implemented as there is no unanimity on the definition of terrorism among the member states.
