New York, September 25: Highlighting that the fight against terrorism must be unrelenting, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that there cannot be selective approaches in dealing with terrorist groups or the infrastructure of terrorism.
“Terrorism has to be fought across all fronts. In South Asia there are encouraging signs of cooperation in the area of security, as exemplified in India’s cooperation with Bangladesh. Such cooperation is adding to the security of both our countries,” Dr. Singh said while addressing the General Debate of the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
He further said that iniquitous growth, inadequate job and education opportunities and denial of basic human freedoms are leading to growing radicalization of the youth, intolerance and extremism.
“We have no choice, but to meet these challenges. We will succeed if we adopt a cooperative rather than a confrontationist approach. We will succeed if we embrace once again the principles on which the United Nations was founded – internationalism and multilateralism,” Dr. Singh said.
“More importantly, we will succeed if our efforts have legitimacy and are pursued not just within the framework of law, but also the spirit of the law,” he added.
The Prime Minister also called upon the United Nations to evolve a comprehensive and effective response to the problem of piracy in the Red Sea and off the coast of Somalia.
“As a littoral state of the Indian Ocean, India is ready to work with other countries in this regard. Simultaneously, the international community should continue with efforts to restore stability in Somalia,” he said.
“We have joined international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the countries afflicted with severe famine and drought in the Horn of Africa, specifically Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti,” he added.
—Agencies