Mr. Chairman,
I congratulate you and other members of the Bureau on your election. I assure you of the full cooperation and support of the Indian delegation during the proceedings of this Committee.
Terrorism is the one of biggest scourges of our times. It has emerged not only as a major destabilising force but one that threatens the very existence of the States and undermines the very foundations of the democratic political and social order.
Prime Minister Modi has said that 'terrorism is a challenge for mankind, not just any one country or region. Those who believe in humanity should join together to tackle terrorism'. The international community needs to adopt a policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism.
India condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and no cause whatsoever or grievance can justify terrorism, including state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
Mr. Chairman,
A 'terrorist' activity does not merely cause disturbance to law and order. The impact of terrorist activity is felt beyond the capacity of the ordinary law enforcement agencies to tackle it under the ordinary criminal law. It is a deliberate and systematic use of coercive intimidation.
No state is immune to the threat of terrorism as continuing terrorist attacks across the world, many of them with links beyond the borders of the affected state, continue to demonstrate. No one country, however rich or powerful, will be able to defeat this acting alone. Terrorism knows no boundaries and much of it is the result of transnational network of terrorists and their organisations and the multiple purposes they represent. The menace of international terrorism with its wide roots and numerous global connections has been recognized as grave international concern by every major international gathering of recent years.
Mr. Chairman,
We welcome the creation of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism that will aim to have a close relationship with Security Council bodies and Member States, strengthening existing and developing new partnerships. We hope this will help in strengthening the delivery of United Nations counter-terrorism capacity building assistance to Member States.
While Security Council engages with issues relating to maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly also has an important role to play in the fight against international terrorism.
In this context, the work done by the Ad-hoc Committee established by the UN General Assembly for formulating international instruments against terrorism assumes special importance. Since its establishment 20 years ago in 1996, this Ad Hoc Committee has negotiated texts resulting in the adoption of three sectoral treaties 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings; the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism; and the 2005 International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.
While these also have been positive developments, we would like to remind that in 1996 India brought the proposal of a Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism (CCIT) before forward the General Assembly. It was aimed at strengthening the international legal framework, and the instruments available to us to combat this scourge.
Regrettably, even as the global threat from terrorism countries to expand exponentially, we here at UN have so far been unable to adopt the CCIT. We have even entangled ourselves in definitional issues as to who is a 'terrorist'.
We believe that narrow geopolitical interests continue to stand in the way of making meaningful progress on the discussions regarding the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. We sincerely hope that given the serious and growing menace of terrorism across continents, a genuine political will to cooperate on these issues will emerge.
Mr. Chairman,
Despite the above difficulties, we appreciate the work done by this Ad Hoc Committee. We take this opportunity to reiterate our support to the draft text of the Convention as proposed by the Coordinator of the Ad Hoc Committee in 2007. We recall that UNGA resolution 71/151 of 20 December 2016, in its para 24 recommends that the sixth committee should continue the efforts of finalising the process on the draft CCIT through its Working Group in the 72nd Session. We look forward to the discussions in the Working Group in the present session to finalize the text of the CCIT.
We thank the Secretary-General for his report in doc. A/72/111 dated 20 June 2017 and its addendums, entitled: 'Measures to eliminate international terrorism' containing information provided by 23 States and 8 intergovernmental organisations.
We attach particular importance to counter-terrorism cooperation and exchange of information at the international, regional and sub-regional level. India is party to 14 universal instruments relating to the prevention and suppression of international terrorism identified by the Secretary-General in his report.
India remains deeply concerned about the issue of financing terrorism, and strongly condemns direct or indirect financial assistance given to terrorist groups or individual members thereof by States or its machineries, to pursue their activities, including in defending the criminal cases involving terrorist acts against them. We have been in the forefront of global counter-terrorism efforts and are part of all major global initiatives, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Mr. Chairman,
There are a number of Security Council resolutions dealing with the issue of counter-terrorism. Resolutions 1267 (1999), 1373 (2001), 1988 (2011), 1989 (2011) 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014); 2199 (2015), 2214 (2015), 2253 (2015) and 2309 (2016) mandate States to take action to prevent and suppress terrorist acts and refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of members of terrorist groups and eliminating the supply of weapons to terrorists. The most recent of these resolution 2309 urges all States to ensure that all their relevant domestic departments, agencies and other entities work closely and effectively together on matters of aviation security.
Mr. Chairman,
The fight against terrorism has to be unrelenting and fought across all fronts. The international community cannot afford selective approaches in dealing with terrorist groups or in dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism. We must step up our collective efforts with realtime cooperation among Member States to confront the scourge of terrorism squarely and decisively. Use of terrorism as an instrument of State Policy cannot be tolerated. Those who have taken recourse to it have invariably suffered themselves proving the age old dictum that those who play with the sword, shall also perish by it.
I thank you.