The West displays blatant double standards when it comes to condemning terrorism in its own backyard and that affecting far-off countries in South Asia. Post 9/11, the US woke up to the threat of Islamic terrorism and ravaged Iraq in an apparent hunt for “weapons of mass destruction” which it reportedly and allegedly never found, if media reports are to be believed. It wreaked similar havoc in Afghanistan, and ravaging the nation, only to withdraw rather embarrassingly and hurriedly years later and leave Afghanistan in the grip of Taliban rule.
However, when it comes to cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan impacting the national security of Bharat, the US and other Western countries have shown little interest in condemning Pakistan. On the contrary, the West has repeatedly used the Kashmir issue as a geopolitical blackmail tool in the context of Bharat. The Labour Party of the UK passed a resolution in the British Parliament in 2019 calling for international intervention in Kashmir and a UN-led Referendum. The resolution was passed following Bharat’s decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
It’s been a standard Western ploy to peddle false accusations of human rights violations against Bharat rather than condemning Pak-sponsored terrorism that’s been taking away the lives of Bharatiya civilians year after year. Thus, the Modi government has over the years adopted an aggressive stance at the UN and other international forums, utilizing every occasion to raise the issues relevant to the country’s national security and exposing the hypocrisy of the West.
Bharat recently called for shunning double standards in the fight against terrorism and said certain countries were using terrorism as an instrument of state policy, in a veiled jibe at Pakistan at a recently held United Nations Security Council Forum.
Bharat’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, R Ravindra called for a crackdown on terror financing and targeted sanctions on terrorist individuals and entities to effectively counter terrorism.
R. Ravindra made these remarks during a UN Security Council briefing. “When we talk about international peace and security, you will agree that terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats. We must, therefore, shun double standards in our fight against terrorism. Certain countries are using terrorism as an instrument of State policy. Such an approach has the potential to affect cooperation in multilateral platforms including the SCO”, he said.
Both Bharat and Pakistan are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) along with Russia and China. The SCO was founded in 2001 to catalyze a range of collaborative efforts on geopolitical, regional, and geostrategic challenges. Bharat, Pakistan, and Iran were granted observer status in 2005. New Delhi and Islamabad became full-fledged members of the SCO grouping in 2017.
While Bharat has kept up its engagement with the SCO over the years, the deep-seated disagreements and contradictions amongst member states on vital issues like terrorism and regional security, have compelled New Delhi to downgrade its engagement with the SCO and instead focus on developing a consensus regarding a counter-terrorism strategy through its separate bilateral engagements with friends like Russia.
The SCO is a difficult country as it strings together countries like Bharat, Pakistan, China, and Russia. While Bharat has enough points of concurrence with Russia, its growing tensions with China and Pakistan and the inaction of Pakistan vis-à-vis cross border terrorism emanating from its land, have compelled New Delhi to tone down its engagement with SCO.
Bharat Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, R. Ravindran’s raising of the issue of state-sponsored terrorism at a UN Security Council Forum and his specific mention of the SCO has to be seen in the context of Bharat’s changing engagement dynamics with groupings like SCO, which have failed to deliver on New Delhi concerns regarding terror financing and the use of terrorism as a state policy.
PM Modi skipped the 24th SCO Summit held recently in Astana, Kazakhstan. Instead, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented Bharat at the summit. Bharat’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, R. Ravindran, while raising the issue of state-sponsored terrorism, also emphasized that all SCO member states should build a consensus on a crackdown on terrorism, in accordance with the declaration passed in the 2024 summit held at Astana.
“We must reaffirm our resolve to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and we must crackdown on all forms of support to terrorism, including its financing. There is a need for full implementation of the UNSC Resolution and targeted sanctions on terrorist individuals and entities to counter terrorism effectively. In this regard, the leaders of SCO agreed in the Astana Declaration adopted on 4 July 2024 that the international community must isolate and expose those countries that harbour terrorists, provide them with safe haven and condone terrorism”, he said.
Further, R. Ravindran also called for the need to take proactive steps to prevent radicalization among the youth. He highlighted the joint statement issued during Bharat’s chairmanship of the SCO in 2023 in the context of the shared commitment of the member countries in fighting radicalization.
“In the backdrop of increasing regional conflicts with new and complex security challenges, the SCO-Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is playing a significant role in strengthening cooperation among member states”, he added. Bharat also emphasized the need for strengthening the RATS mechanism at SCO to “fight against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism”.
The issue of terrorism is increasingly figuring prominently in Bharat’s bilateral meeting agendas with countries across the world. During the recently held bilateral summit in Russia, Bharat and Russia unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms. PM Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin strongly condemned the recent terrorist attack in the Kathua area of Jammu and Kashmir. They also condemned the terror attacks in Dagestan on June 23 and the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on March 22.
The joint statement issued after the summit had a separate section devoted to countering terrorism. In the statement, Russia and Bharat called for an uncompromising fight against international terrorism and extremism in all its manifestations and emphasized the importance of enhancing cooperation in combating terrorism on the basis of international law and the UN charter.
Bharat also raised the issue of the UN’s ability to tackle terrorism at a recently held UNSC open debate. At a UNSC meeting, Bharat pointed out the UN’s increasing inability and failure to address significant global issues such as terrorism, climate change, pandemics, cyberattacks, threats from emerging technologies, etc.
Bharat’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN R. Ravindran said that the primary reason the multilateral system failed was because it was still stuck in a 1945 vintage binary outlook reflected in the composition of the UN Security Council. Bharat therefore has consistently called for reformed multilateralism which isn’t possible without a reformed Security Council that reflects the contemporary realities of today.
The sheer failure of the UN to reform itself in accordance with the changing geopolitical dynamics of the world is indeed a major factor in its inability to deal with the issue of terrorism and extremism.
The world has moved away ahead, grappling with a whole new range of issues and concerns, while the UN seems to be stuck in a time warp where a bunch of privileged countries still call the shots, asserting their imagined superiority in the “Don Quixote chasing windmills” fashion. The power dynamics of the UN no longer reflect the global power dynamics at the ground level. The global South is going from strength to strength, Bharat is a major rising power, and Europe is grappling with its own complex set of problems and issues. But the UN still seems to be stuck in a simplistic worldview of North vs South, with the North calling the shots. That’s precisely why it’s failed miserably when it comes to addressing complex issues of the present multilateral world order including terrorism.
