RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3441
TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.03.2021.
WORLD FORUM AGAINST TERRORISM
3441. SHRI ANIL DESAI:
Will the Minister of External Affairs be pleased to state:
(a) the number of international forum to fight against terrorism;
(b) whether India is also a member of any of such forum; and
(c) the name of the member countries of such organisation/forum and the activities they have carried out against terrorism?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
(SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN)
(a) There are several governmental and non-governmental international fora to fight against terrorism, prominent among them include United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT), United Nations Security Council (UNSC) subsidiary bodies such as Counter Terrorism Committee (UNCTC) and the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (D’aesh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) etc. In addition, several regional, plurilateral and multilateral groupings such as BRICS, South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), European Union (EU) etc., have set up mechanisms to fight against terrorism. Cooperation on counter terrorism is also effected through Interpol.
(b) Yes. India is a member of several such fora. India also engages through the mechanisms of Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism (JWG-CT) with senior interlocutors of 25 countries and a few regional, plurilateral and multilateral groupings such as BRICS, BIMSTEC, EU, etc. India also participates in the activities of counter terrorism mechanisms established under SAARC, ARF, SCO etc. India has also signed bilateral Memorandum of Understanding to combat terrorism and transnational crimes with several key countries.
(c) Various international fora have different member countries, UNOCT has all the 193 member states of United Nations as its members while the membership of subsidiary bodies of UNSC keeps changing every year except the 5 permanent members of UNSC. Similarly, FATF has 39 members while GCTF has 30 members. These fora carry out various activities for countering terrorism like establishing intelligence and information exchange mechanisms, organising workshops for exchange of good practices, developing toolkits and guidance manuals, capacity building initiatives for law enforcement officials etc., on the themes of countering radicalisation, combating terrorism, countering terror financing, countering terrorist use of internet etc.
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