Terror tops India’s ASEM agenda

With terrorism becoming a global concern, India feels it’s time to push for a comprehensive convention for international terrorism (CCIT), a proposal it had mooted in 1996 but hasn’t materialised till date.

As of now, there is no convention on terrorism, though the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) visits the issue as and when required. For instance, after 26/11, UNSC banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa. But India feels more needs to be done. With many more countries agreeing to CCIT, it would like to take the policy forward at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit for a broader consensus among the about 48 participating countries from Asia and Europe.

“Terrorism is very high on our agenda and of many other countries as well. Our views are clear. We basically want to push for sustained international efforts [to contain terror],” vice-president Hamid Ansari, who is leading the Indian delegation to the ASEM summit, said. 

While one full session has been devoted to terrorism at ASEM, the main theme of the summit is financial and economic governance and sustainable development.

As many parts of the world continue to grapple with financial crises, India will share its experience on how it handled the situation and remained less affected by the crisis.

“We are among the very few who have not been badly hit by the global financial crisis. The credit goes to our sound policies persuaded by the government in the financial sector which didn’t create the kind of situation for irresponsibility that happened in the western countries,” Ansari said.