India’s all-out effort to mount a massive and robust diplomatic campaign over the past sev- eral weeks to draw international community’s attention to the menace of terrorism, particularly cross-border terrorism, has been commendable. Given the statements from Indian leaders and top security officials in the recent past, New Delhi looks to be quite determined to shift to top gear the campaign against terrorism in days to come. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already set the narrative and agenda with his address at an in- ternational conference on terror financing. In an indirect reference to Pakistan and China, Prime Minister Modi at the conference said that certain countries offer political, ideological and financial support to terror groups and sometimes, there are indirect arguments made in support of terror- ism to block action against terrorists. He had also highlighted concern over how “state support is one of the financial sources of terror groups”.
Prime Minister Modi’s pledge to focus on coun- tering terrorism even as India assumed G-20 presidency is an indication of the fact that India is set to give further impetus to the campaign at the summit of the grouping next year. What is certain is that the cross-border terrorism with the sup- port of Pakistan will also be included in the agen- da, and the diplomats must be working overtime to give it a final shape.
With China in attendance during the meetings of the G-20, India will not hesitate to highlight how Beijing’s bid to stall blacklisting of Pakistan based terrorists at the UNSC is in fact weakening inter- national community’s collective fight against ter- rorism. In fact, India’s G20 plans include a special focus on counter-terrorism, which must obvious- ly include cross-border terrorism that is the threat not only to India but entire region. The world focus should also be on helping prepare strategy to deal with this challenge, as callous approach towards the cross border terrorism will definitely embolden the terror groups that are out to carry out their sinister plans everywhere.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar did a commendable job by raising the issue of cross border terrorism emanating from Paksitan at a meeting with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock on Monday. EAM and Baerbock held a detailed discussion on Pakistan. What is remark- able is that Berlin agrees that cross border terror- ism remains a challenge for ties between India and Pakistan.
As a matter of fact, Jaishankar discussing cross border terrorism with Baerbock is part of India’s diplomatic campaign to keep international com- munity’s focus to this menace at a time when the issues like the Ukraine war, the Taiwan tension, the west sanctions against Russia, continue to top the agenda for the global community.
During the meeting between Jaishankar and Baerbock, the issues related to Afghanistan were also discussed during which the focus was on ter- rorists using Kabul’s soil to expand their activities. In another development of significance, NSA Ajit Doval utilised the meeting of Central Asian coun- terparts here in New Delhi to highlight India’s concerns over cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. The NSAs of the Central Asian countries did share India’s concerns, underlin- ing the need to launch a collective fight against the menace.
The joint communiqué after the meeting of NSAs said, “The misuse of new and emerging technologies, arms and drugs trafficking, using terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism, abuse of cyberspace to spread disinformation and un- manned aerial systems present new challenges in counter-terrorism efforts and call for collective ac- tion.” The mentioning of cross-border terrorism is a reference to Pakistan from India’s perspective. It is an achievement for India that the NSAs of In- dia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan who participated in the meeting, in private conversation, agreed that Pakistan sup- ports cross-border terrorism.
On Tuesday, India at the United Nations not only launched a blistering attack against terrorism, but also reminded the global community of its duty to have a zero-tolerance approach towards this men- ace. India’s permanent representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj said that terrorism remains a global challenge and only a unified and zero-toler- ance approach to this can defeat it. She remarked, “Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations remains a global challenge.” What is important to note here is that Kamboj made these observa- tions while addressing a meeting over Iraq. What the Indian diplomat sought to suggest was that the global community must keep its focus on this menace in every sphere of the world.