The leaders agreed to enhance the effectiveness of international cooperation to refuse any safe haven to terrorist groups as well as financial, material or political support…reports Asian Lite News
The G20 (Group of 20) members condemned terrorism in all forms and recognized that it constitutes one of the more “serious threats to international peace and security,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday, the first day of the G20 Summit, said.
The G20 group of countries Saturday adopted the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration where consensus was achieved on all issues, including the divisive Russia-Ukraine issue, making it a historic win for India’s presidency.
In a joint press conference along with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Jaishankar said, “The leaders condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and recognized that it constitutes one of the more serious threats to international peace and security…”
In the G20 New Delhi Declaration, the G20 members said, “We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including those on the basis of xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief, recognizing the commitment of all religions to peace. It constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.”
The leaders agreed to enhance the effectiveness of international cooperation to refuse any safe haven to terrorist groups as well as financial, material or political support.
” We strongly condemn all terrorist acts against critical infrastructure, including critical energy facilities, and against other vulnerable targets. All acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. Effective counterterrorism measures, support for the victims of terrorism and the protection of human rights are not conflicting goals, but complementary and mutually reinforcing. A holistic approach on the basis of international law can effectively counter terrorism. Efforts to increase the effectiveness of international cooperation should be strengthened to deny terrorist groups safe haven, freedom of operations, movement and recruitment, as well as financial, material or political support,” it added.
Meanwhile, at the press conference, the EAM referred to paragraphs 74, and 75 of the declaration and said, “I would draw your attention to paragraphs 74 and 75 of the leaders’ declaration. 75 speaks about the role of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) because clearly, the financing of terrorism is a very strong concern that the entire international community, not just the G 20 shares. The 74 deals with illicit trafficking and diversion of small arms and light weapons. So I think these are concerns. So within the G 20, I think these conversations are quite helpful, but obviously, in terms of policy action, they will be carried into their mechanisms and forums which focus on the issue.”
The 74th and 75th paragraphs of the New Delhi Declaration read, “We also express concern about illicit trafficking and diversion of small arms and light weapons. International cooperation among States is critical to combat these phenomena, including export, import controls, and tracing. We commit to supporting the increasing resource needs of the FATF and FATF Style Regional Bodies and encourage others to do the same, including for the next round of mutual evaluations.”
The G20 members remain committed to the timely and global implementation of the revised FATF Standards on the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements to make it more difficult for criminals to hide and launder ill-gotten gains.
The members welcome the ongoing work of the FATF to enhance global efforts to recover criminal proceeds, in particular, the progress made by the FATF towards revising its standards on asset recovery and reinforcing global asset recovery networks. They also reiterated the importance of countries developing and implementing effective regulatory and supervisory frameworks to mitigate risks associated with virtual assets in line with FATF Standards, especially for terrorism financing, money laundering, and proliferation financing risks.
In this regard, the G20 members support the FATF’s initiative to accelerate the global implementation of its standards, including the “travel rule”, and its work on risks of emerging technologies and innovations, including decentralised finance (DeFi) arrangements and peer-to-peer transactions, as per the joint declaration. (ANI)
‘Delhi Declaration seeks to accelerate progress on SDGs’
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Saturday said the New Delhi Declaration adopted by G20 leaders focuses on promoting strong sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth and seeks to accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Leaders of the member countries committed to enhancing G20 cooperation and partnerships to address challenges being faced in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched by a UN Summit in New York on 25-27 September 2015 and is aimed at ending poverty in all its forms. The UN 2030 Agenda envisages “a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination”.
The Agenda’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and their 169 targets, aim at eradicating poverty in all forms and “seek to realize the human rights of all and achieve gender equality”.
“The declaration the leaders have agreed on today focuses on promoting strong sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. It seeks to accelerate progress on SDGs and has come up with an action plan accordingly,” the EAM said during a press briefing by the G20 Presidency on Saturday.
At the start of the G20 second session, the Summit adopted the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration.
The EAM said the declaration “envisages a green development pact for a sustainable future, it endorses high-level principles on lifestyle for sustainable development, voluntary principles of hydrogen, the Chennai principles for a sustainable resilient blue economy and the Deccan principles on food security and nutrition among others…”
The EAM emphasized that the G20 has recognized the need for a post-pandemic world order that differs from the one before it. He highlighted that the G20 has played a significant role in preparing India to engage with the world effectively.
Meanwhile, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said: “The key achievements include, we have achieved a green development pact…every single country has come together to focus on green development pact which has financing, which has a focus on global greenhouse gas emission by 43 per cent by 2030, which has a doubling provision of adapting finance by 2025, which has a global biofuel alliance…”
The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration agreed to leverage the G20’s convening power and its collective resolve to fully and effectively implement the 2030 Agenda and accelerate progress toward the SDGs, in a timely manner, to shape the world we want to see for our future generations.
The G20 leaders through the declaration, committed to accelerate progress on SDGs by taking collective action for effective and timely implementation of the G20 2023 Action Plan to Accelerate Progress on the SDGs, including its High-Level Principles. (ANI)
ALSO READ-BRICS Expansion Boosts China’s Bid for Global Leadership
