FIFA World Cup to polls, 14 countries cite reasons to skip anti-terror meet

“The first NMFT conference was held in Paris in 2018 and the second was held in Melbourne in 2019. As per schedule, it was decided that India will host the meet in 2020. But due to the Covid pandemic, the plan was changed. Now it will be held in Delhi,” a senior official said.

Sources told The Indian Express that India invited 87 countries and 26 multilateral organisations for the event. While some countries are still sending their confirmation to participate in the meet, some have informed about their inability to attend it.
“So far, around 50 countries have confirmed their presence, and some of them have made their confirmation by assuring to send a delegation with the minister. Around 14 countries have expressed their inability to participate after giving their legitimate reason,” a source said.

Sharing details, sources said Qatar expressed its inability to participate, citing the FIFA-2022 World Cup, which starts from November 20, while Malaysia cited the general elections after its parliament was dissolved in October and Iraq informed that it won’t be able to participate as new appointments were under process there.

Sources said the conference will discuss several topics, including global trends in terrorism and terrorist financing, use of formal and informal channels of funds for terrorism, emerging technologies and terrorist financing and international cooperation to address challenges in combating terrorist financing.

Last month, the threat posed by terror funding through cryptocurrency and the use of Internet by terrorist outfits were among the key concerns raised at the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee meeting.