India to garner support for anti-terror initiative CCIT at BRICS

BENAULIM: India will impress upon co-members to support its key antiterror initiative at UN — Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) — during the eighth edition of the Brics Summit in Goa on Sunday. CCIT’s adoption will provide the legal framework to fight terrorism globally.

Launched in 1996 by India, CCIT provides a legal framework which would make it binding on all countries to deny funds and safe haven to terror groups.

But the pact has been deadlocked over differences on defining terrorism and terrorists by certain countries including certain western nations. During her address at UNGA last month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had sought support for adoption of CCIT. However, there are some Brics members too have differences on definition on terrorism.

At a briefing in New Delhi, last week, MEA Secretary (Economic Relations) Amar Sinha had said “global regime is already inscribed in the agenda of UN. We have been pressing all our partners in all for and here also we will push this along. The issue which has been the stumbling block is how to define terrorism. There are many countries, in fact, our NSA in the meeting had suggested perhaps we can move on terror cooperation without actually coming to a definition of terrorism because everybody knows. When a terrorist act happens you know exactly what terrorism is. So you don’t have to first start defining it. You take the act as a terrorist act and work backwards. So that is one of the suggestions but I am sure we will push that.”

However, Indian officials claimed there is a growing resonance among UN members on the need for such a legal framework. The initiative has seen "a lot of progress" and there was a wide agreement on most of it, according to the officials familiar with the matter. CCIT was pushed by Narendra Modi in his address at the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2014.

“Terrorism is undoubtedly the single-biggest threat to international peace and security,” a senior official said, adding the convention would give "legal teeth to prosecuting terrorist acts". To forge that last mile of consensus on CCIT, India is considering all options, including "voting" at UN, said another official.