UNSC’s Counter-Terrorism Committee will meet for the first time in India this week
India is hosting a special meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), which will discuss the broader topic of ‘countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes. The panel will discuss terror financing using cryptocurrencies and drones in new-age terrorism.
This will be the first meeting of the UNSC-CTC in India since its inception in 2001. India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations serves as the Chairman of the CTC for 2022.
Announcing this, Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, said, “A special meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the United Nations Security Council will be held on October 28 and 29, 2022, respectively in Mumbai and Delhi on the broader subject. Will go ‘Combating the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, representatives of UNSC member states (15 current and five upcoming ones), and senior UN officials will lay wreaths at the 26/11 memorial site in Mumbai and observe a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.
According to Verma, the meeting will begin on October 28 with a ‘soft opening session and tribute to the victims of terrorism through a grand ceremony at Hotel Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai. The discussion will continue on October 29 in Delhi.
Officials said the outcome of the UNSC CTC meeting would feed into India’s UNSC December Presidency Open Briefing on “Global Counter-Terrorism Architecture: Principles and the Way Forward”, which is scheduled to be held in New York on December 15, 2022. “We would be honoured to hear the voices of the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and the 2016 Brussels bombings. The meeting will be followed by an informal session on combating the financing of terrorism in the local and regional context,” said Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
“We cannot think of a better place to hold this meeting than right here in India. Not just because it is the largest democracy in the world but also because India is a society where many cultures and religions coexist and because India is an innovation and technological power. Directorate (UN-CTED).
Asked why China was repeatedly blocking efforts to designate Pakistan-based terrorists in the UN, Verma said without naming any country, adding that the proposals were thrown into objections on technical grounds.
