India is hosting a special meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) to explore the overarching issue of ‘Confronting the exploitation of new and emerging technology for terrorist purposes.’ The panel will also explore terror financing via cryptocurrency and the use of drones in modern terrorism.
This would be the first UNSC-CTC conference in India since its inception in 2001. The Chair of the CTC for 2022 is India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
“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 Ministry Secretary (West) Sanjay Verma announced.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will lay a wreath at the 26/11 memorial site in Mumbai, together with representatives from the UN Security Council (15 existing and incoming five) and senior UN officials, and observe a minute’s silence in honour of the victims.
According to Verma, the meeting would begin on October 28 with a’soft opening session and respect to the victims of terrorism’ at the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai. On October 29, the discussions will resume in Delhi.
The conclusions of the UNSC CTC conference, according to officials, will feed into India’s UNSC December Presidency Open Briefing on “Global counter-terrorism architecture: Principles and the way forward,” which is slated to take place in New York on December 15, 2022. “It will be an honour to hear the victims’ voices from the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as well as the 2016 Brussels bombings.” “The meeting will be followed by an informal session on combatting terror financing in the local and regional context,” India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj said.
“There is no better venue to convene this meeting than right here in India.” Not only because it is the world’s largest democracy, but also because India is a country where many cultures and religions coexist, and because India is an innovation and technology powerhouse,” said David Scharia, Executive Director of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee (UN-CTED).
When asked about China’s persistent rejection of UN efforts to identify Pakistan-based terrorists, Verma claimed proposals were met with technical concerns.
