Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to the Paris carnage of November 13 with alacrity, reiterating India’s demand that the United Nations adopt a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism without delay and insisting that the world must not distinguish between terrorist groups or discriminate between nations, but isolate those who harbour terrorists and stand with nations that fight them honestly.
Coming smack in the middle of his visit to the United Kingdom, the carnage was savage vindication of New Delhi’s warnings about the dangers posed by portable terrorism, an issue the West played down when India was principal victim, despite some scary incidents in Western countries.
The moot point is whether Paris will bring the G-20 and the United Nations closer to the Indian understanding of terrorism. Will European countries that promptly closed their borders after the massacre continue to pressurise India to open borders with Pakistan? Only last month, while Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in Washington to discuss a possible civil nuclear agreement on the lines of the US-India deal of 2005, Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, also in the US, boasted that his nuclear warheads exceed those of India. It is pertinent that India faced years of Western sanctions after Pokharan-II; Pakistan none.
Notwithstanding the G-20 statement committing to fight terrorism, it is still uncertain if the United States, France, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, that have used terrorist groups to achieve political ends (read oust Basher al-Assad) will meaningfully unite to decimate these groups now that terrorism has come to Europe with such chilling intensity. Even before the summit ended, Washington approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Riyadh – the deal will be clinched unless the US Congress rejects it within 30 days.
In Antalya, Turkey, at the BRICS leaders’ meeting prior to the G-20, Modi condemned the tragedy in Paris as well as the lost Russian airliner in the Sinai, and terrorism’s spreading imprint in Ankara and Beirut. He urged that combating terrorism be a priority for BRICS nations.
In a working dinner at the G-20, Modi pointed out “old structures of terrorism remain” and some countries “still use it as an instrument of state policy.” He didn’t mention Pakistan, but said the changing character of terrorism, its global links, franchise relations, home-grown terrorism and use of cyber space for recruitment and propaganda pose new threats to pluralist and open societies. Hinting that the existing global framework for security is obsolete, he urged a comprehensive global strategy to combat terrorism. Chiding that “we tend to be selective in using the instruments that we have”, he exhorted: “The world must speak in one voice and act in unison against terrorism, without any political considerations”.
Besides a stronger role for the United Nations, Modi proposed broader peace and stability in West Asia and Africa, which will be crucial to handling the current refugee crisis. This will be the litmus test for international unity on the subject. At Antalya, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for UN-negotiated peace talks and a ceasefire in Syria, but Turkey insisted that President Assad could not be part of the new arrangement.
The migrant issue has become critical with most European nations urging controls on the flow of migrants, especially after it was verified that one terrorist used a fake passport to enter the European Union. But European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker cautioned that the refugees were fleeing from the very groups that organised and perpetrated attacks like Paris, so Europe cannot reverse policy on refugees.
Though the G-20 struggled to achieve unanimity on combating terrorism, problems remained. Russian President Putin said all action should be “in strict accordance with the United Nations,” to curb the scope for unilateralism, which was endorsed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. European Council President Donald Tusk called for coordinating action against the ISIS, for which cooperation with Russia is imperative.
But France resumed bombing in Syria even as the summit was underway, and President Erdoğan said that while Turkey would continue to fight against ISIS, it would also combat al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). His lengthy list of terrorist groups includes the Syrian Kurdish groups, People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD), which have won international acclaim for their valour against ISIS, but have links to the PKK.
Further strains were evident when President Putin told journalists that around 40 countries, including some among the G-20, financed the ISIS and facilitated its illegal trade in oil and petroleum products.
The G-20 statement on the fight against terrorism asserted that terrorism cannot be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic group and assigned a central role for the UN in fighting terrorism, in accordance with the UN Charter, international laws, Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2178, and the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy. Expressing concern at the growing flow of foreign terrorist fighters and threat posed to all States, the leaders demanded enhanced border controls and aviation security; tackling financing channels of terrorism by exchanging information and freezing assets of terrorists through speedy implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, and pledged support to counter-radicalisation measures.
17 November 2015
http://www.abplive.in/blog/modi-serves-the-right-reminders-on-global-terror