Joint Special Meeting of CTC and 1267 Committee on

“Terrorist-financing threats and trends and the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2462 (2019)”

(18 November 2021)

INDIA STATEMENT

by 

Mr Rajesh Parihar, First Secretary

I thank the Chair of CTC Ambassador Tarek Ladeb and the Chair of 1267 ISIL/Al-Qaida Committee Ambassador Trine Heimerback for organizing this meeting on a very topical issue, especially in the backdrop of the events which have unfolded since August this year in our neighborhood. I also thank Mr Marcus Pleyer, President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Ms. Michelle Coninsx, Executive Director of CTED, Mr Edmond Fitton Brown, Coordinator of Monitoring Team, and other speakers today for their presentations and useful insights into the issue. 

2. The threat of terrorism is on rise. The Secretary General’s semi-annual report published in August this year highlighted the continuous expansion of ISIL and its affiliates in many parts of Africa and Afghanistan. As rightly pointed out by the statement of Co-chairs, terrorists need money to carry out their operations and expansions. The continuous expansion of terrorist groups is a reality check for all of us that despite Security Council resolution 2462 to curb the financing of terrorism, its implementation by the member states remains challenging, in some cases due to lack of political will. 

3. The recent trends shows that in addition to the continuation of the traditional way of terror-financing, including through the transnational organized crime - illicit trafficking of arms, persons, drugs, cultural property, illicit trade in natural resources, precious metals and stones, kidnapping, extortion, and money-laundering; the terrorist groups have found new ways to finance their activities. Emergence of new financial and payment technologies and methods, and the anonymity offered by them have attracted the terrorist groups to quickly adapt them for collection and transfer of funds by evading monitoring and enforcement structures. Misuse of new financial technologies and methods such as block chain technology, virtual crypto currencies, digital crowdsourcing, prepaid phone cards, have all posed serious risk to the efforts of countering financing of terrorism. The reports of Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team have continued to capture this trend, including in its latest report in June 2021 and SG’s semi-annual report of August 2021.  On top of it, the pandemic has further exacerbated this risk. In particular, fake charities and fake Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) have become more frequent sources of terror-financing. 

4. India has been a victim of cross-border terrorism for over 3 decades. The Global Implementation Survey of resolution 1373, which was adopted early this month by the Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) clearly mentions, [Quote] the overall effectiveness of freezing regimes in South Asia has not improved materially since the previous survey, and States of this subregion remain non-compliant with the freezing requirements of resolution 1373 (2001).  In few geographies, listed terrorist entities continue to raise funds to finance terrorism through front organizations, including the abuse of non-profit organizations, through a variety of means such as charity, donations and crowdfunding [Unquote]. This should be read in conjunction with FATF’s latest report on “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring” published in October 2021, which has criticized a country in our region for its continued laxity towards terror-financing investigations and prosecutions of senior leaders and commanders of UN designated terrorist groups. It is time the international community hold such countries accountable for their actions and demand fulfilment of their obligations towards implementation of the security council resolutions, including resolution 2462.

5. India has been fully committed to counter the financing of terrorism and has over the last few decades developed the necessary capabilities, legal frameworks, institutions, best practices to countering the financing of terrorism (CFT). India became member of Financial Action Task Force in 2010, to allow itself to bring its CFT standards and practices in line with international standards advocated by the FATF. India has performed National Risk Assessments in 2019 & 2020, has made tremendous progress in implementing the recommendations of FATF commensurate with its Money Laundering and terror-financing risks, and is gearing up for its upcoming evaluation of FATF. While NRA takes into account the risk posed by cash couriers, the Government has taken steps towards lowering cash transactions through Banks and incentivising digital payments. As part of the NRA, NPO Risk Assessment have also been conducted in 2020 and 2021 to identify linkages between various individuals, NPOs and terrorist outfits active in the region. India is also in process of upgrading its Financial Intelligence Network or FINNET by introducing machine learning or artificial intelligence, chatbots, virtual assistants, natural language processing, among other technological interventions, and strengthen the financial intelligence infrastructure to ensure quicker dissemination of terror-financing cases to law enforcement agencies (LEAs).

6. India has been contributing proactively to further international co-operation to combat financing of terrorism at regional and international level. In 2018, India contributed $550,000 to the UNOCT’s programmes targeting capacity building of countries in East and Southern Africa. This year too, we have contributed half a million dollars to further strengthen these efforts. Preventing terrorists from accessing financial resources is crucial to successfully countering the threat of terrorism. While some states lack the legal-operational frameworks and necessary CFT capacities, there are other States that are clearly guilty of aiding and supporting terrorism, and wilfully providing financial assistance and safe havens to terrorists. While we must enhance capacities of the former, the international community must collectively call out the latter and hold them accountable.

7. Before I conclude, I would like to re-iterate that implementation of the security council resolutions for countering financing of terrorism solely depends on their implementation by the member states. The recent report of the Monitoring Team (MT), regarding asset freeze exemptions procedures pursuant to resolution 2560 (2020), published last month, also paints a grim picture of implementation of asset freeze exemption measures by member states. Notwithstanding, we have been hearing some voices for revisiting the resolution 2462 and diluting the language on member states obligations over the issue of over compliance by some member states. We can do so at our own peril, as this further encourage the non-compliant states, to continue providing safe haven to terror-financing and their beneficiaries. 

8. What we need today is an effective collaborative and multilateral approach to counter financing of terrorism, built on public-private partnership to identify and mitigate new terror-financing risks, strengthening support to financial watchdogs such as FATF to ensure that member states bring their counter-financing structures at par with international standards.

I thank you.

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