New Delhi [India], March 3 (ANI): Quad grouping of nations comprising of US, Japan, Australia and India on Friday introduced the institution of a Working Group on Counter-Terrorism in sharpening of the group’s focus to fight terror.
A joint assertion of the Quad Leaders issued in New Delhi at this time denounced the usage of terrorist proxies and dedicated to advertise accountability for terrorist assaults together with the 26/11 assault in Mumbai, “which claimed lives of citizens from all Quad countries”. Heavily-armed terrorists from Pakistan struck in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 during which a minimum of 174 individuals, together with 26 overseas nationals, have been killed and over 300 individuals injured.
“We announce the establishment of the Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, which will explore cooperation amongst the Quad and with Indo-Pacific partners, to counter new and emerging forms of terrorism, radicalization to violence and violent extremism,” the joint assertion stated.
It famous that terrorism has change into more and more diffuse, aided by terrorists’ adaptation to, and the usage of rising and evolving applied sciences resembling unmanned aerial programs (UAS) and the web, together with social media platforms for recruitment and incitement to commit terrorist acts, in addition to for the financing, planning, and preparation of terrorist actions.
The group additionally welcomed the targeted discussions on these themes on the Quad Counter-Terrorism Policy Meeting and tabletop train hosted by Australia in October 2022 and stated it regarded ahead to its first assembly within the United States in March 2023 to proceed discussions on this international difficulty.Earlier throughout a panel dialogue on “The Quad Squad: Power and Purpose of the Polygon,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that new issues have come out throughout the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
“If you ask me what were the new things which came out today, we agreed on a counter-terrorism working group. We agreed on cooperating more closely with Indian Ocean Rim Association. We agreed that we had earlier worked out a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Quad initiative,” stated Jaishankar.
“We are pleased to note the progress made under the Quad Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Partnership (HADR) for the Indo-Pacific, since our last meeting in September 2022, when we signed the Guidelines for the Partnership,” learn the assertionQuad welcomed the outcomes of the primary HADR tabletop train and biannual assembly held in India in December 2022 and appears ahead to the finalization of the Partnership’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which might allow an efficacious and coordinated response mechanism.
Jaishankar additionally stated that one of many outcomes that Quad agreed on was that the listings of terrorists, the counter-terrorism listings shouldn’t be politicised.
“We unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations. We denounce the use of terrorist proxies and emphasize the importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to terrorist organizations which could be used to launch or plan terrorist attacks, including transnational and cross-border attacks,” learn the joint assertion.
Moreover, Quad reiterates the condemnation of terrorist assaults, together with 26/11 Mumbai, which claimed the lives of residents from all Quad nations, and the Pathankot assaults.
“We are committed to working together with our regional and international partners to promote accountability for the perpetrators of such terrorist attacks, including through designations by the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee. In this regard, we express our concern at attempts to politicise the working of the UNSC Sanctions Regimes and call on all states to maintain the transparent, objective and evidence-based working methods of UNSC Sanctions Committees,” added the assertion.
Speaking on reforms within the UN and Standard Operating Procedures on counter-terrorism, Jaishankar stated, “So the SOP for that which I think the military people would obviously see as a prerequisite for their cooperation. We coordinated with the UN to make sure that the processes of the UN are respected and workings of the UN stayed true to its spirit. I was personally happy that there was a stronger expression of support from all of us collectively to the reform of the UN to the fact that there would be inter-governmental negotiations on the reform.”He stated that the Quad is working in 2023 as a result of now we have a management much less burdened by baggage.
“I take the Quad back to Boxing Day 2004 when the Indian Ocean Tsunami happened. In 2006, when Prime Minister Abe came to India, before coming he had the idea that Quad could be an effective way of dealing with the challenges. There was actually a Quad meeting, my memory serves me right, in Manila in 2007. Then it did not work out. If you ask me why didn’t it work out, as opposed to what happened 10 years later because it was revived 10 years later in 2017,” stated Jaishankar.
“In 2019, it became a Foreign Minister’s level, and when the Biden administration came in in 2021, it became a Summit level. One, there was greater strategic clarity on the part of all the countries concerned. If I were to look at India’s ties with the US, it became much deeper. With Japan also, grew, and the real big change has been in the last decade has been with Australia. In a way, Quad is working in 2023 because we have a leadership less burdened by baggage,” the exterior affairs minister added. Meanwhile, within the joint assertion issued at this time the Quad sought an finish to violence and detentions by the Myanmar Junta. On Ukraine, the joint assertion stated they “continued to discuss our responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the immense human suffering it is causing, and concurred that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”.
“We underscored the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter. We emphasised that the rules-based international order must respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency and peaceful resolution of disputes,” the statetement added. (ANI)