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How global events put terrorism on G20’s agenda.

Relevance:

• GS Paper- 2: Important International institutions, agencies, and fora – their Structure, Mandate.
• GS Paper- 3: Security Challenges and their Management in Border Areas – Linkages of Organized Crime with Terrorism.
• Tags: #upsc #terrorism #organisedcrime #currentaffairs #G20.

Why in the news?

India has consistently pushed for global consensus on fighting terrorism and emphasized on a “uniform, unified and zero tolerance approach”. However, at the G20 the needle on terrorism decisively moved only in 2015 post the Paris attacks.

How focused has G20 been on terrorism?

• G20 is a grouping of 20 largest economies in the world that came together in 1999 largely for issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development. Thus, it has never been a forum that was primarily concerned with security issues.
• In fact, in the first two ministerial conferences (G20 started having summits only from 2008 onwards), terrorism did not even find a mention.
• However, following the events of September 11, 2001, as global terrorism reached American shores, the attention of international powers turned to the menace that had long impacted India and certain other regions in West and South Asia.
• The G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors held in November that year mentioned “terror”, “terrorist” and “terrorism” a total of 29 times in its communique.
• This was largely a result of a push by the US following the 9/11 attacks as it felt need for an international cooperation, specially on terror financing. This resulted in strengthening of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and certain other arms of international financial bodies.
• “Terrorism was never really a core topic for the G20 when its first summit took place in 2008. Being a predominantly economic forum, security debates within it were almost frowned upon. However, Turkey’s G20 presidency in 2015 can be seen as a pivotal moment .

How has G20’s approach to terrorism evolved over the years?

• Following the 2001 communique, there were fewer mentions of terrorism in the communiques until the 2015 summit in Turkey, when dedicated documents started being produced in the summit.
• In fact, a 2002 meet, held in New Delhi, had only three mentions of the word “terror” or “terrorism” and no significant assertion beyond “renewed commitment” to combating terror financing.
• The Turkey Summit once again picked the issue up, this time, in the aftermath of the Paris attack and the rise of Islamic State.
• The summit communique was significant for expressing “resolve in the fight against terrorism” in all its forms and wherever it occurs.
• From 2008 to 2019, the G20 leaders focused on condemning the act of terrorism and addressing terrorist financing. In 2017 at Hamburg, the G20 leaders released their “Statement on Countering Terrorism.
• At Osaka in 2019 they included discussions on preventing internet exploitation for terrorism and violent extremism.

How has India been placed in this discussion?

• India has been pushing its concerns on terrorism in various international forums including the G20, even though the group has achieved very little in this regard.
• “In the last one year, however, India has been able to bring G20 focus back on it. It has been able to articulate the linkages between the global economy and terrorist financing.
• The July G20 conference organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs on impact of new-age technologies on security was commendable, given that the grouping is largely focused on economic cooperation and governance.
• In the past one year India has hosted three conferences at the level of Interpol, the UN and the No Money for Terror Conference where challenges of combating terror financing and propagation due to emerging technologies were discussed.

Is G20 the right forum to address terror concerns?

• “Terrorism today has evolved rapidly, along with the global order, specifically over the past decade. It’s not just about groups like Al Qaeda or the post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ agenda but how we see terrorism and extremism in an era of geo-economics which encompasses everything from security of connectivity projects to security of digital infrastructure and the cyber space.
• From ports to cryptocurrency, terrorism utilizes every available infrastructure today. “However, G20 is not the correct forum to expect practical or tactical returns on regional or national terrorism related challenges.
• But it does not stop us from raising any issue it deems critical to its economic blueprint towards its aim to become a $5 trillion economy,”.

Way Forward

• India has already raised issues of terror financing in the two G20 conferences of Foreign Ministers’ meet these include threats from “new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes”, “linkages between terrorism and organized crime”, “denying terrorist groups safe haven”, “securing digital public infrastructure”, “challenges posed by the darknet and crypto-currencies” and “collective measures to counter money laundering and terrorism financing”.
• To ensure the above stated objectives, India must ensure the efforts from various stakeholders and required a common platform to deliberate on such issues with international collaboration and cooperation.

Source: Indian Express