Vice President Hamid Ansari on Tuesday said that States sponsoring terrorism must be isolated by the international community and forced to abandon…
Vice President Hamid Ansar
Vice President Hamid Ansari on Tuesday said that States sponsoring terrorism must be isolated by the international community and forced to abandon the use of terrorism as a tool of State policy.
Speaking after inaugurating the 3rd Counter Terrorism Conference organised by the India Foundation, he said countries in the region must unite and fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
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To provide a comprehensive answer to the threats posed by transnational crime and terrorism in the Indian Ocean Region, he said that regional security and development agendas need to be connected and coordinated.
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Forums like BIMSTEC, SAARC, ASEAN, the IORA and the UN have a direct interest, and the responsibility, to ensure that the efforts are comprehensive, and the resources necessary to respond quickly to the threat of terrorism are available, he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Bimlendra Nidhi, Railway Minister Suresh Parbhu, the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar were present.
The Vice President said in recent years nothing had caused greater pain, disruption and inconvenience to societies, governments and individuals than the phenomenon of terrorism. Security in the Indian Ocean region is capricious on account of a complex set of problems inherited from its recent past, he added.
Ansari saidthe most virulent factor fuelling terrorism is state sponsorship of and collusion with terrorists and a case in point is Pakistan's use of extremist groups as an instrument of foreign policy is well documented.
He said it is not sustainable for countries to continue to address terrorism or transnational crime from a narrow national interest perspective, nor can development be viewed as a standalone endeavour independent from security.
To provide a comprehensive answer to the threats posed by transnational crime and terrorism in
the Indian Ocean Region, regional security and development agendas need to be connected and coordinated, he added.
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