In a first, UNSC’s Counter Terrorism Committee to meet in India this week

Announcing this, Foreign Ministry Secretary (West) Sanjay Verma said, “A special meeting of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) will be hosted in Mumbai and Delhi on October 28 and 29, 2022, respectively, on the overarching theme of ‘Countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes’.”

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, along with representatives of the UNSC member states (15 current and incoming five), and senior UN officials will lay a wreath at the 26/11 memorial site in Mumbai and observe a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.

According to Verma, the meeting will begin with a ‘soft opening session and tribute to the victims of terrorism’ through a solemn ceremony at Hotel Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai on October 28. The discussions will continue in Delhi on October 29.

The meeting is expected to be attended by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, along with his counterparts from Gabon and Ghana; and junior foreign ministers from UAE and Albania. The delegation will be led by Vladimir Voronkov, Under Secretary General, UN Office for Counter Terrorism. During the sessions in Mumbai, statements in memory of victims will be read out by Jaishankar, and President of the UNSC, Foreign Minister of Gabon. The discussions will focus on ‘Countering terrorist exploitation of information and communication technologies (ICTs)’, ‘Countering terrorism financing online – threats and opportunities related to new payment technologies and fund-raising methods’, and ‘Threats posed by terrorist use of unmanned aerial systems’.

Officials said the outcomes of the UNSC CTC meeting will feed into India’s UNSC December Presidency Open Briefing on “Global counter terrorism architecture: Principles and the way ahead”, which is scheduled to be held in New York on December 15, 2022. “We will be honoured to hear the voices of the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as well as the 2016 Brussels bombings. The meeting will be followed by an informal session on combating terror financing in the local and regional context,” Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said.

“We cannot think of a better place to hold this meeting than right here in India. Not just because it is the world’s largest democracy, but also because India is a society where a host of cultures and religions coexist and because India is an innovation and technology powerhouse,” said David Scharia, the head of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UN-CTED).

When asked about China repeatedly blocking efforts at UN to designate Pakistan-based terrorists, Verma, without naming any country, said proposals ran into objections based on technicalities.