WEB DESK
India has called for standardising punitive measures against states who use terrorists as their first line of offence and use duplicity as a policy.
Speaking at the Conference in Paris on fight against terrorist financing for Daesh and Al Qaeda, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said terrorism is becoming the dominant feature of conflict in the 21st century.
He said, terrorists, particularly those impelled by dated ideologies like faith supremacy, challenge the very concept of the nation-state, and seek to replace it with faith-based space.
Mr Akbar said for more than two decades the UN had been unable to agree upon a definition of terrorism and asked how do we fight an enemy we cannot define.
He said, indeed more cooperation is often seen between terrorist gangs, their sponsors and affiliates than between nations fighting terrorism.
The minister said there was a need for cooperation on a counteroffensive against a lifeline of terrorism that is finance.
More than 70 countries taking part in the conference have committed to bolster efforts in the fight against terrorism financing associated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. Participants at a conference in Paris agreed to “fully criminalise” terror financing through effective and proportionate sanctions “even in the absence of a link to a specific terrorist act.”
The two-day event has been convened by French President Emmanuel Macron to coordinate efforts to reduce the terror threat in the long-term.