World must find ways to stop misuse of emerging technologies by terror groups: Jaishankar
Jaishankar Counter-Terrorism meet
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday cautioned that social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the "toolkit" of terror groups and pitched for global efforts to stop possible misuse of new technologies such as encrypted messaging and crypto-currency by "non-state actors".
In his address at the special meeting of the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New Delhi, he said terrorist groups, their "ideological fellow-travellers" and "lone wolf" attackers have significantly enhanced capabilities by gaining access to new technologies.
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Technological innovations have been transformative in the way the world functions and the emerging technologies — from virtual private networks, and encrypted messaging services to blockchain and virtual currencies — offer a promising future for economic and social benefits, but there is a flip side to it, especially where terrorism is concerned, he added.
"These very technologies have also thrown up new challenges for the governments and regulatory bodies due to their potential vulnerability for misuse by non-state actors, given the very nature of some of these technologies and the nascent regulatory environment," Jaishankar said.
In as an apparent reference to Pakistan, Jaishankar said the counter-terror sanction regime of the United Nations has been effective to put countries on notice that turned terrorism into a "state-funded enterprise".
Jaishankar said that counter-terrorism has become one of the top priorities for India during its ongoing tenure in the security council.
"The council holding this special meeting of its Counter-Terrorism Committee in India is also a product of the fact that counter-terrorism has become one of the top priorities during our ongoing tenure in the security council," Jaishankar said.
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Meanwhile, India also committed to contributing half a million dollars ($500,000)to UN Trust Fund.
"India will be making a voluntary contribution of half a million dollars to the UN Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism this year to augment the efforts of UNOCT in providing capacity-building support to member states in preventing& countering the threat of terrorism," the minister said.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also spoke on the matter of terrorism and called it a "global problem and a global threat".
"I'm incredibly grateful to Minister Jaishankar for using India's Security Council presidency to focus on this crucial issue & advance his eight-point plan," Cleverly said.
"Within the space of just two decades, terrorists have gone from circulating crackly voice recordings from the depths of Tora Bora to global online recruitment and incitement campaigns to live-stream attacks," he added.
India is hosting a meeting of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in Mumbai. The theme this year is "Countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes".
This is the first such meeting of the UNSC-CTC in India ever since it was established in 2001.
On Friday, on day one of the meeting, Jaishankar spoke about the significance of the venue chosen, and said, "Fourteen years ago, on 26th November 2008, the city of Mumbai was witness to one of the most shocking terror attacks of our times."
The EAM also spoke about how this attack "publicly challenged"the UN and its member states’ commitment to combat terrorism and that the task of bringing the masterminds and perpetrators of this attack to justice “remains unfinished”. Therefore the committee gathering at the Taj Hotel is both “special and significant”.
He added, “140 Indian nationals and 26 citizens of 23 other countries lost their lives in a period of four days. In fact, this entire city was held hostage by terrorists who had entered from across the border.”
(With inputs from agencies)
