India at forefront to push for joint, collective effort to combat terrorism: Ambassador Tirumurti
India's Permanent Representative to United Nations TS Tirumurti on Monday said that India has played an active role in shaping global counter-terrorism strategy. Tirumurti said, "As regards terrorism, India has always been at the forefront to push for a joint and collective effort to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We by having played an active role in shaping global counter-terrorism strategy."
Talking to news agency ANI, Tirumurti further reiterated that India has done so before and will continue to do in future. The worsening situation in Afghanistan post-Taliban takeover has drawn global attention and as per Tirumurti, the issues relating to terrorism will be extremely important at UNGA.
"On Afghanistan, our Prime Minister has already made our stand very clear in his recent address to the SCO summit last week," said the Indian envoy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 25.
Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)-Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Outreach Summit on Afghanistan, the Prime Minister drew attention to issues related to the developments in Afghanistan, noting that the power change in Afghanistan is not inclusive and has taken place without negotiations.
"Prime Minister dealt with some very specific issues relating to the non-inclusive non negotiated transition of power. He emphasized the presentation of all sections, including women and minorities," said Tirumurti.
Drawing the attention of SCO member countries towards the possibility of an increase in the uncontrolled flow of drugs, illegal arms and human trafficking, PM Modi had said that to monitor these flows and to increase information sharing, SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) mechanism can play a positive role.
"Afghanistan is facing a serious humanitarian crisis due to the impact of fundamentalism and instability on terrorism, extremist ideologies, increasing radicalization, uncontrolled flow of drugs, illegal weapons and human trafficking," said Tirumurti.
He also talked about Resolution 2593 that was passed by the UNSC under the presidency of India on August 30, 2021, with Russia and China abstaining from voting.
This resolution demands that Afghan territory should not be used to threaten or attack any country or to finance terrorist acts.
"We have also had an important resolution, as you know, this was a resolution passed in the UN Security Council on August 30, under our presidency, and this in many ways it's the benchmark for the situation in Afghanistan. And we also see a central role for the United Nations in this context, even for the international community to come and address them jointly and effectively," added Tirumurti.
He further reiterated that India will stop all attempts to weaken the collective resolve of the member states to fight terrorism or to provide justification for terror.
Elaborating on the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the most important issues on the upcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the 76th session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 25, he said, "India has been at the forefront in fighting COVID pandemic. We will reinforce several initiatives taken to ensure vaccine equity and ensure vaccines' access and availability for developing countries that haven't been brought into the ambit of vaccine distribution."
"And as I mentioned one of the themes for this year's genuine debate is building resilience through hope to recover from COVID-19, and many developing countries, which have not had adequate access to the vaccines, and actually extremely concerned about what are we going to do next," he added further.
(With inputs from ANI)
