India turns heat on China, Pakistan with UN’s Delhi Declaration
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 29: In the run up to the UN Counter Terrorism Council meeting in New Delhi, India furiously watched the double-standard of the western world on terrorism. While China predictably played the obvious script at the UN Security Council to block designations of the terrorists who have been found to be complicit in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, dropping Pakistan from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) came as a shocker.
The UN Counter Terrorism Council saw heated arguments between Russia and the western countries, as Moscow stuck to its allegations that a key bridge in Crimea was attacked by terrorists operating out of Ukraine. The Delhi Declaration adopted at the end of the deliberations saw a clear articulation against the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles for carrying out terror operations. The declaration somehow reflected the Russian concerns, for drones and UAVs have been heavily used as part of the war efforts by Ukraine against the Russian forces, which are being called terrorist actions by Moscow.
India too has in the last couple of years seen increasing use of drones and UAVs by Pakistan in the border areas to further the terror activities, while also extending support to the illicit drug trafficking. The Delhi Declaration expressed concerns at “the increasing global misuse of unmanned aerial systems by terrorists to conduct attacks and incursions into critical infrastructure and soft targets or public places, and to traffic drugs and arms”.
The Delhi Declaration also turned the spotlight on states such as China and Pakistan by calling upon the member countries of the UN for the “zero tolerance towards terrorism through the full and effective implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions, asking member states to fulfil their obligations enshrined in relevant international counter terrorism conventions”.
The Delhi Declaration further sought to put lid on the terror financing by calling upon the member countries to “prevent and suppress financing of terrorist acts and to refrain from providing support to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of terrorists and eliminating supply of weapons”.
This week alone India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had come down heavily on the United Nations from its growing irrelevance in dealing with terrorism, as a number of resolutions seeking to designate terrorists, who have been investigated upon and found complicit in terror acts, were blocked by China by using its technical hold at the behest of Pakistan, which continues to provide the free sanctuary to terrorists in accordance with its state policy.
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The persistent presence of terrorism is rooted to it’s financing. I applaud our respected representatives for taking a stance during the latest UN Counter Terrorism Council Meeting. It is about time that this UN body undertook effective measures to counter the menace of global and domestic terrorism. I truly agree and am disheartened to hear about the news of Pakistan being dropped from the grey list.
Very interesting read. Thankyou for this.