‘Should avoid politicisation of UN listings, FATF to combat terror’: Modi’s veiled dig at China

New York, Sep 24: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a veiled dig at China and said that terrorists should not be allowed to get funds and arms, in a covered reference to China. He also said that politicising mechanisms like UN listing and FATF should be avoided for the objective to be realised.

He made these comments while speaking at the Leaders' Dialogue on Strategic Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Narratives at the UN headquarters in New York.

"The Prime Minister called for qualitative up-gradation in the ongoing cooperation and intelligence sharing through bilateral and regional frameworks," MEA Secretary (West) A Gitesh Sarma told reporters at a briefing while quoting PM Modi.

"The Prime Minister said that terrorists should not be allowed to get funds and arms. For this objective to be realised, we need to avoid politicisation of mechanisms like UN listings and FATF. These mechanisms need to be enforced," Sarma said.

PM Modi also emphasised on global unity and readiness to fight terrorism in the same way the world has shown solidarity against climate change challenges.

"He said a terrorist attack, anywhere in the world should be considered as terrorism, not good or bad terrorism," Sarma said.

PM Modi also shared the strategies needed to combat terrorism and said that democratic values, diversity and inclusive development were the most important weapons to fight against extremism, radicalism, and ideologies that promote terrorism.

Earlier in the day, Modi addressed the Climate Action Summit and the high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage.

On Sunday PM Modi had addressed 50,000 American-Indians at the Howdy, Modi! event in Houston. He was also joined by US President Donald Trump. PM Modi will now attend the UNGA's 74th session on 27 September, which will be his second address to the world's top body after he addressed it in 2014 after forming the government for the first time.