16-Dec; External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has said, the world cannot let another ‘9/11 of New York’ or ’26/11 of Mumbai’ happen again. He said this while speaking during UN Security Council briefing on ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts: Global counter-terrorism approach – principles and the way forward’ in New York last night. Dr Jaishankar said, the world must overcome political differences and manifest a zero-tolerance approach to tackle terrorism. He stressed that no individual state should endeavour to seek political gain from terrorism.Dr Jaishankar said, accountability must be the bedrock of counter-terrorism. He said the UN briefing is a part of India’s ongoing efforts in the Security Council to re-invigorate its counter-terrorism agenda. He called this overdue saying that the threat of terrorism has become even more serious. Citing the expansion of Al-Qaida, Da’esh, Boko Haram and Al Shabab and their affiliates, he also said, at the other end of the spectrum are ‘lone wolf’ attacks inspired by online radicalization and biases.Stating that the world should not forget that old habits and established networks are still alive, especially in South Asia, Dr Jaishankar added that the contemporary epicenter of terrorism remains very much alive and active.Stating that dealing with double standards, is a challenge both inside and outside the Security Council, the Minister pointed out that for too long, some have persisted with the approach that terrorism is just another instrument or stratagem. He called it as wrong and potentially downright dangerous.Dr Jaishankar said, the suggestion that states who are apparently capable of everything else but are only helpless when it comes to terrorism is ludicrous.The External Affairs Minister highlighted four specific challenges with which the counter-terrorism architecture is currently grappling. He cited the issue of terror financing and state culpability as the first challenge. Ensuring integrity and accountability of the counter-terror multilateral mechanisms and their working methods is the second challenge and addressing double standards in countering terrorism is the third.
