Countries sponsoring and harbouring terrorists should be made to pay the price for doing so, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday, calling for a united global fight against terrori
Countries sponsoring and harbouring terrorists should be made to pay the price for doing so, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday, calling for a united global fight against terrorism.
In an address to youth delegates in New Delhi who are in India to attend the ongoing (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) Brics Youth Summit in Guwahati from July 1 to 3, Ms Swaraj said the fight should be carried out without any distinction being made between “good” and “bad” terrorists.
Ironically, China, a member of Brics, had, a few months ago, opposed India’s move to get terror outfit JeM’s chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN, a clear example of China condoning Pakistan’s strategy of allowing terrorists to freely operate from Pakistani soil.
“We also need to work and fight together to eliminate international terrorism in Brics, UN Security Council and its various committees. This should be done without any differentiation of a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ terrorist. A terrorist is a terrorist, and is someone who is acting against humanity as a whole. Those countries which sponsor and harbour terrorists should be made to pay a price,” Ms Swaraj said.
Ms Swaraj also heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the event, telling the Brics youth delegates, “In Prime Minister Modi, you will find the biggest champion of youth. He had stressed the role of youth in his address at the Fortaleza Summit.”
Swaraj said BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) was shaping the global discourse significantly to deal with a range of challenges like climate change, poverty alleviation and corruption and that it must also work to eliminate terrorism.
India will host the eighth annual Summit of BRICS in Goa in October in its capacity as chair of the influential bloc comprising the five countries account for 42 per cent of the world’s population and combined GDP of over USD 16 trillion.
“We also need to work together for early reforms of the UN Security Council, so that this body continues to be relevant to the needs of the 21st century,” she said.
