India, Central Asian countries call for achieving "world free of terror"

New Delhi, Jan 27: India and five Central Asian countries on Thursday asserted that providing support, using proxies for cross-border terrorism and terror financing go against the basic principles of humanity, as they called for combating the menace comprehensively to achieve a "world free of terror". The assertion was made at the first India-Central Asia Summit hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was attended by five presidents -- Kazakhstan's Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan's Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyz Republic.

A Delhi Declaration issued after the summit said the two sides acknowledged that defence cooperation constitutes an important pillar between India and the Central Asian countries. The presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan expressed satisfaction over regular bilateral military counter-terrorism exercises with India. They also agreed to consider holding of joint counter-terrorism exercises between India and interested Central Asian countries, the declaration said. The Kazakh President Tomkayev expressed gratitude to Modi for the continued co-deployment of Kazakh troops within the Indian battalion in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The leaders underscored the importance of regular dialogue between the security councils of their countries in view of the common challenges of terrorism, extremism and radicalisation in the region. They expressed satisfaction at regular meetings and security dialogues held between their security councils, in particular, during 2021, and welcomed the outcomes of the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan held on November 10, 2021.

Modi and the leaders of the five Central Asian countries condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reiterated that providing support, using terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism, terror financing, arms and drugs trafficking, dissemination of a radical ideology and abuse of cyber space to spread disinformation and incite violence, goes against the basic principles of humanity and international relations.

They agreed that terrorism must be comprehensively countered to achieve a "world free of terror", the declaration said. The Central Asian leaders stressed the importance of further universalisation of the Code of Conduct towards achieving a world free of terrorism, which for the first time acknowledged the interconnection between security, combating terrorism and development, thus facilitating the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The leaders also called for early adoption of the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

They urged the international community to strengthen UN-led global counter-terrorism cooperation and fully implement the relevant UNSC resolutions, Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and FATF standards. In this regard, the leaders noted the proposal of Tajikistan to hold an international conference within the framework of "Dushanbe process on countering the financing of terrorism" in October 2022 in Dushanbe. PTI