G20 addresses India’s concerns on small arms, terror safe havens

The declaration is a significant improvement upon the 2022 G20 Bali Leaders Declaration, which largely focussed on financing of terrorism and on strengthening the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The New Delhi declaration builds upon the 2015 Turkiye declaration which is considered among the strongest condemnations of terrorism and commitment towards tackling it in G20 summits, coming as it did after the Paris attacks that year.

“We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including those on the basis of xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief, recognizing the commitment of all religions to peace. It constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security,” the New Delhi declaration said.

In what would be regarded as addressing India-specific concerns, the declaration said, “We also express concern about illicit trafficking and diversion of small arms and light weapons. International cooperation among States is critical to combat these phenomena, including export, import controls, and tracing.”

Notably, a lot of arms and explosives recovered by security forces in Kashmir Valley from terrorists have had Chinese markings.

In what would be considered a reference to Pakistan and Afghanistan, two of India’s primary neighbourhood concerns, the declaration said, “Efforts to increase the effectiveness of international cooperation should be strengthened to deny terrorist groups safe haven, freedom of operations, movement and recruitment, as well as financial, material or political support.”

The declaration also condemned terror acts against critical infrastructure, including critical energy facilities, and against other vulnerable targets.

“All acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. Effective counterterrorism measures, support for the victims of terrorism and the protection of human rights are not conflicting goals, but complementary and mutually reinforcing. A holistic approach on the basis of international law can effectively counter terrorism,” it said.

It reiterated earlier G20 declarations’ commitment to strengthening of the FATF but also included the issue of “risks associated with virtual assets”. India has been raising this issue as part of threats from emerging technologies in various international forums for the past one year.

“We reiterate the importance of countries developing and implementing effective regulatory and supervisory frameworks to mitigate risks associated with virtual assets in line with FATF Standards, especially for terrorism financing, money laundering, and proliferation financing risks. In this regard, we support the FATF’s initiative to accelerate the global implementation of its standards, including the “travel rule”, and its work on risks of emerging technologies and innovations, including decentralised finance (DeFi) arrangements and peer-to-peer transactions,” the declaration said.

Concerns about virtual assets were not part of the Bali declarations which focused on countering terror finance and money laundering through the FATF.

The Delhi declaration said the leaders remain committed to the timely and global implementation of the revised FATF Standards on the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements to make it more difficult for criminals to hide and launder ill-gotten gains.

On the lines of the Bali declaration, the declaration has said, “We welcome the ongoing work of the FATF to enhance global efforts to recover criminal proceeds, in particular, the progress made by the FATF towards revising its standards on asset recovery and reinforcing global asset recovery networks,” it said.

However, building further on the Bali declaration, which had expressed commitment to “delivering the strategic priorities” of the FATF, the New Delhi declaration has said, “We commit to supporting the increasing resource needs” of the FATF.