India stressed that “a terrorist is a terrorist” and called on the international community to work collectively to eradicate the “deadly ideology” without finding any injustice that justifies terrorism.
“India has been a victim of cross-border terrorism for decades. Our people have paid the price for terrorism in lives lost, families injured, and communities torn apart. This experience has shaped India’s approach: there can be no justification for terrorism.”
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India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Harish Parvathanini, said, “Regardless of any complaint, political reason or strategic calculations, terrorism in all its forms and manifestations must be condemned unequivocally.”
Giving her assessment to the UN General Assembly on the adoption of the ninth review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy on Wednesday, Parvathanini said that the international community must reject double standards in the fight against terrorism.
He stressed the need to hold the perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.
He said that Member States must ensure full cooperation in this regard.
He said, “A terrorist is a terrorist!! We must work hand in hand to eradicate the murderous ideology without creating any injustice that justifies terrorism.”
India said the fight against terrorism should not be hollowed out through false equations or politicized narratives.
“We must address the conditions that lead to the spread of terrorism, but we must not confuse context with justification. We must uphold human rights and the rule of law, but we must also recognize that the first human right is the right to life, and terrorism is the most direct assault on that human right.”
India also stressed that combating terrorist financing must remain central to the collective efforts of the international community.
“The international community must improve financial intelligence sharing, strengthen implementation of Financial Action Task Force standards, and ensure that no jurisdiction remains a safe channel for terrorist financing.”
Noting that the misuse of new and emerging technologies by terrorists requires urgent attention, India said it is “disappointing” that negotiations on this review of the global counter-terrorism regime have not been able to reach an acceptable starting point on the crucial issue of ensuring that terrorists are deprived of the technological tools for their nefarious actions.
India said that the adoption of this review comes at an important moment, as member states met 20 years ago to adopt the global counter-terrorism regime.
He added, “With this, the international community has confirmed that terrorism poses a threat to humanity, and can only be defeated through international cooperation.”
India called for the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) a decade before the General Convention against Terrorism was first adopted in 2006.
Parvathanini pointed out that the absence of a globally agreed legal framework still hinders collective action against terrorism.
This legal instrument is necessary to close normative loopholes, strengthen prosecution and extradition, and deny terrorists and their sponsors access to safe havens, money and weapons.
“Nearly three decades of delay have hampered our collective efforts to combat terrorism. It is time to show political will to conclude the Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism,” he said.
Emphasizing that India has consistently contributed to global efforts to combat terrorism and has hosted major international discussions, including the Delhi Declaration on Combating the Use of New and Emerging Technologies for Terrorist Purposes and the No Money for Terrorism conferences;
India expressed criticism that the historic Delhi Declaration was not mentioned at the GCTS in 2023, saying that this “reflects the deplorable situation of how this Assembly has been held hostage by small numbers! It is doubly unfortunate that the international community continues to tolerate this behaviour.”
India also reiterated its position of condemnation of all acts motivated by bias directed against any religion or any other characteristic, such as race, nationality, geography or ethnicity.
“Since this is the United Nations, a multilateral forum with global membership, our lens must also be global. While we condemn all actions motivated by Islamophobia, Christianity and anti-Semitism, this august body must acknowledge that such phobias extend to other religions as well,” he said.
Parvathanini stressed that there are great risks due to the lack of international cooperation in combating terrorism.
“Only if we have the political will to confront it in all its manifestations; only if there are no double standards; only if there is no distinction between good and bad terrorists.”
“Only if there is transparency and objectivity in the way sanctions regimes operate to secure the inclusion of truly objective, evidence-based designation proposals; only if exclusive frameworks, neologisms and false priorities are thwarted, will we together be able to successfully combat the threat of terrorism,” he said.
