IBSA Exhorts Stopping Terror Finance & Cross-Border Terrorists

Rio De Janeiro, Feb 23 (PTI) India, Brazil and South Africa have asserted it is the responsibility of all countries to prevent and counter terrorism, including the cross-border movement of terrorists, the financing of terrorist networks and terrorist actions from their territories.

The Ministerial Declaration released at the IBSA Standalone Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs also said that the UN Security Council should be the sole authority for imposing sanctions.

The India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA) Standalone Meeting that was held on Thursday was attended by Minister of State of External Affairs V Muraleedharan, Brazil's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, and South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Grace Naledi Pandor, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

The Declaration, without naming any country, deplored the continued terrorist attacks across the world and condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations “wherever committed and by whomsoever” and concurred that terrorist safe havens must be eliminated in every part of the world.

Reaffirming their solidarity and resolve in the fight against terrorism, the ministers called upon the international community “to establish a genuinely broad international counter-terrorism framework in accordance with the principles of international law” and support the United Nations' central coordinating role in international counter-terrorism cooperation, the statement said.

“They recalled the responsibility of all States to prevent and counter terrorism, including the cross-border movement of terrorists, the financing of terrorist networks and terrorist actions from their territories,” it said.

The three ministers reiterated their resolve to step up joint efforts for the expeditious adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UNGA.

They looked forward to further deepening counter-terrorism cooperation and reaffirmed the sole authority of the UN Security Council for imposing sanctions, the MEA said.

Incidentally, media reports on Friday said the United States and the European Union are piling new sanctions on Russia on the eve of the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony.

The IBSA Ministerial Declaration also called for urgent reform of the working methods of UN Security Council Sanctions Committees “to ensure their effectiveness, responsiveness and transparency” while “avoiding politicisation and double standards” of any of their proceedings, including listing proposals objectively on evidence-based criteria.

The ministers emphasised that while a comprehensive reform of the United Nations system remains a crucial international undertaking, the advancing of the reform of the Security Council should remain an urgent and top priority and expressed, once again, frustration with the paralysis observed at the Inter-Governmental Negotiations on UN Security Council reform.

They also expressed “grave concern” over rising unilateral coercive and trade-distorting measures such as carbon border taxes, adopted by developed countries under the pretext of climate action and protecting the environment.

They agreed that the fight against poverty and hunger is a priority and a long-standing area for cooperation among the three countries and decided to host the first meeting of IBSA authorities on food security and nutrition.

The Declaration mentioned multiple other issues of global concern such as health, social development, energy, trade, and agriculture among others, and reiterated the South-South Cooperation, the statement said.

The IBSA was created more than 20 years ago to promote coordination on global issues between three large pluralistic, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic democracies of Asia, South America, and Africa, and to enhance trilateral cooperation in sectoral areas, providing a new framework to South-South Cooperation.