New Delhi, 18 November: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday made a global call for a direct attack on terrorism, saying that the absence of war is not a symbol of peace, but a proxy war is more dangerous. He said that some countries are supporting terrorism as a part of ideology, world should take united action against such countries.
Modi delivered the inaugural address at the 3rd ‘No Money for Terror’ (NMFT) Ministerial Conference on Counter Terrorism Financing, at Hotel Taj Palace New Delhi. In this global conference, the Prime Minister underlined the importance of united action on terrorism.
The Prime Minister also made a veiled attack on China’s obstruction in efforts to take action against terrorists from Pakistan in the United Nations. The Prime Minister said that sometimes indirect reasons are given in support of terrorism to prevent action against terrorists, such kind of wavering attitude should have no place while dealing with a global threat.
Noting that collective efforts are being hampered by some misconceptions about terror, Modi said that the world should not need to remind anyone about its menace. There should be simultaneous loud condemnation and stern action against all kinds of terrorist attacks, he said, the response should not be based on where a terrorist attack occurs.
Modi said, ?Terrorism can be defeated only with a uniform, unified and zero-tolerance approach.? The Prime Minister also gave his views on the measures to deal with terrorism. He said that for this, going forward, work will have to be done on a large scale and in a phased manner. He said that a direct strike at the support networks and sources of funding for terrorism is needed. He said that joint action, mutual cooperation in intelligence and extradition can help in the fight against terrorism.
On the sources of funding to terrorism, the Prime Minister said that it is evident to the world that terrorist organisations receive funds from many sources. In an indirect attack on Pakistan, he said that one of the sources of terror funding is some countries directly helping it. Some countries use terrorism as their foreign policy, he continued, and organised crime is also a source of funding terrorism, action against them becomes very important.
The Prime Minister also made a special mention of the changes taking place in the modus operandi of terrorism during this period. He said that ever-evolving technology is both a challenge and a solution, there is a need to move towards the solution. Modi said that India, before recognising the world terrorism, had become aware of its dark face. Terrorism in different forms harmed India in which we lost thousands of precious lives but India has faced terrorism strongly, he added, every life is precious for us and would not stop till the end of terrorism.
The Prime Minister said that in the long run the brunt of terrorism is borne by the poor and the local economy. Inaugurating the conference, National Investigation Agency (NIA) DG Dinkar Gupta said that Prime Minister Modi’s policy of ‘Zero Tolerance’ towards terrorism and the strong and determined leadership given to it as well as the approach of the entire government has helped the country, it has brought significant changes in the security landscape. In the last eight and a half years, there has been a significant reduction in terrorist activities in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, he said that there has also been a major reduction in the overall economic impact of terrorism on India during this period.
Many countries are represented in the two-day conference. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been kept away from this conference. The two-day conference, to be held on November 18-19, will provide a unique platform for the participating countries and organisations to deliberate on the effectiveness of the existing international regime on counter-terrorist financing as well as the steps needed to address the emerging challenges.
This conference will build on the experience and learnings of the previous two conferences (held in Paris in April 2018 and Melbourne in November 2019) and facilitate access to permitted jurisdictions in order to deny terrorists finance and operate their agendas. The discussions will be in the direction of increasing global cooperation. Around 450 delegates from around the world are participating in the conference, including ministers, heads of multilateral organisations and heads of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) delegations.
Deliberations will be held in four sessions during the conference, which are ‘Global Trends in Terrorism and Terrorist Financing’, ‘Utilisation of Formal and Informal Channels of Funding for Terrorism’, ‘Emerging Technologies and Terrorist Financing’ and ‘Combating Terrorist Financing’ international cooperation to address the challenges in doing
