India, Uganda pledge to counter terrorism

Kampala: India and Uganda today voiced their strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and reaffirmed the need for the UN Security Council’s comprehensive reform to make it more effective to the geo-political realities of the 21st century.

According to a joint statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the two leaders underlined the traditionally warm and close ties between the two countries.

They agreed that the terrorism poses a grave threat to global peace and stability and reiterated their strong commitment to combat it in all its forms and manifestations, it said.

They stressed that there could be no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever.

The leaders asserted that strong measures should be taken against terrorists, terror organisations, their networks and all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism, or provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, it said.

They also underscored the need to ensure that terror organisations do not get access to any weapons of mass destruction or technologies and committed to cooperate for the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), the statement said.

India had proposed the CCIT more than two decades ago in the United Nations as an instrument for a global alliance of nations against terrorism.

Prime Minister Modi and President Museveni reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council, including its expansion, to make it more representative, accountable, effective and responsive to the geo-political realities of the 21st century, the statement said.

India along with Brazil, Germany and Japan has been pushing for the expansion of the UN Security Council for long, saying that the current United Nations and its powerful Security Council do not reflect the ground realities of the 21st century.

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