India’s foreign minister says militancy serious challenge for SAARC nations
Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:56
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Reuters: Militancy is one of the serious challenges that is being faced by the South Asian region, said India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, while speaking at event of SAARC in a gobalising world in New Delhi.
Swaraj had attended the 36th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Council of Ministers meet in Nepal last month along with foreign secretaries of Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Maldives.
Swaraj said that there was no region in the world that shares history, culture and geography like the eight counties of SAARC do. She said if SAARC nations work together, they can solve any problem.
“Terrorism is one of the most serious challenges faced in the entire South Asian region and it can only be dealt with, when each one of us recognises that there are no good terrorist and bad terrorist, they are all the same. As neighbours, we must remain sensitive to each other security concerns, neither encourage nor undertake any activity that might be detrimental to the security and welfare of their neighbour. It is equally important to ensure that we fulfill our international and regional obligations in terms of denying century, funding and trading, support to non-state actors terrorists are criminals,” said Swaraj.
Meanwhile, Swaraj said the nations should share information to neutralise threats posed by militants.
“We must also strengthen our defences against illicit narcotics, fake currencies, weapons smuggling, human traffic and cyber crime. We must work together to neutralise the threat posed to each other by sharing resources and intelligence and data about extremist and terrorist outfits only then can we create a genuine cooperative South Asian security community,” she said.
She said that India hoped to sign SAARC Motor Vehicle and SAARC Railway Agreements. She spoke about the unilateral commitments promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi like granting business visa for three to five years for SAARC members through SAARC business travellers’ card. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahri announced the formation of an Indian branch of his militant group he said would spread Islamic rule and “raise the flag of jihad” across the subcontinent.
Zawahri also renewed a longstanding vow of loyalty to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in an apparent snub to the Islamic State armed group challenging al Qaeda for leadership of transnational Islamist militancy. Zawahri described the formation of “Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent” as glad tidings for Muslims “in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujurat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir” and said the new wing would rescue Muslims there from injustice and oppression.
Islamic State has carved out swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, but its influence over militant groups in South Asia is believed to be limited so far.
