The United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) Counter-Terrorism Committee will meet for the second day where the participating nations will hold diplomatic discussions in New Delhi on Saturday. The meeting will be attended by representatives from many countries including diplomats from China.
During the meeting, the committee focus mainly on three challenges- the use of the internet and social media in terrorist operations, the use of new payment technology for fundraising and the use of drones or UAVs.
Earlier on Friday, representatives from all 15 UNSC members were present at the conference held at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel, one of the sites of the 2008 terror attack.
During the inaugural session in Mumbai, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue of listing planners of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack as global terrorists. Jaishankar said that the 26/11 attack would never be forgotten.
The photographs of all major accused in different terror attacks on India, including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were shown on the screen to all the members present. The delegates sat at a replica of the iconic horse-shoe table at the UNSC chamber in New York.
However, China blocked listing the five terrorists with its representative asking the countries to “avoid mutual accusations and politicising technical issues.” The listing of Sajid Mir as a global terrorist, an initiative of India and the US, was earlier blocked by China at the UN in September this year.
India, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, is currently holding the chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. The UN Security Council established the Counter-Terrorism Committee in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks by adopting resolution 1373 of 2001 concerning countering terrorism.
This is the first such meeting of the UNSC-CTC in India since its establishment in 2001. The Permanent Representative of India to the UN holds the Chair of the CTC for 2022.
Delegates from Albania, Brazil, China, France, Gabon, Ghana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, Russia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) are participating in this UNSC meeting.
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