How India Had 'Major Influence' on Counter-terror Policy at G20 Meet

Hamburg: India said on Saturday it had “a major influence” on counter-terrorism discussions at the G20 Summit here with Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the key issue with European leaders.

“India had a major influence on counterterrorism discussions at the G20 and also played a significant role in talks on trade and investment, migration and climate change,” said Arvind Panagariya, sherpa for India at the Summit.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said counter-terrorism measures remained in focus during all discussions Modi had with European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at the G20 Summit.

Modi has been raising the issue of combating terrorism in all his meetings recently with European leaders in the wake of a spate of terror attacks that have struck European countries like Germany, France, the UK and Sweden recently.

Pledging a joint crackdown on the global scourge of terrorism and to check its funding sources, G20 leaders, including Modi, said on Friday all terror safe havens must be eliminated in every part of the world.

In a joint declaration on countering terrorism on the first day of the G20 Summit here, they resolved to facilitate swift and targeted exchanges of information between intelligence, law enforcement and judicial authorities on operational information-sharing, preventive measures and criminal justice response.

Referring to the declaration, Panagariya said the G20 nations’ joint statement on fighting terror was to be an annexure to the G20 declaration but India pitched for it to be a separate statement.

Modi, who was a lead speaker on the theme of terrorism at the Leaders Retreat at the G-20 Summit on Friday, had bracketed Pakistan-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed with ISIS and al-Qaeda and made a strong pitch for global “deterrent” action against countries that support terrorism for their political goals.

Modi had presented a 10-point action plan to counter terror, including a ban on the entry of officials from terrorism-supporting countries into G-20 nations.