Reiterating that terrorism is the single biggest threat to international peace and security, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday called for a global action on the issue and stated that India would continue to push for action under the ambit of the United Nations.
“While the threat of terrorism is transnational, the response does not appear to be coordinated. Even though there is broad consensus on what constitutes an act of terror, a formal agreement is missing,” he said addressing the 19th edition of the Asian Security Conference at the Institute of Defence and Security Analysis.
Mr. Parrikar reminded the audience that India had first submitted a resolution in the United Nations for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) way back in 1996.
“Twenty years later we continue to push and put our weight on this aspect, to shut down terror camps, to ban all terror groups, prosecute all terrorist under special laws and make cross border an extraditable offense worldwide,” he stated.
Observing that India and Afghanistan have been victims of cross border terrorism, Mr. Parrikar said this is the CCIT India had included within its ambit “action against terror groups, propagate terrorist activities and provide safe heavens to terrorists.”
“We will be pushing this further and would be working tirelessly for a cohesive global response,” he added.
Mr. Parrikar also stressed that a strong regional push from Asia will exert greater pressure on the rest of the world to add to the cohesive framework to fight all terror groups and terror activities together.
