NSA Doval Wants SCO To Take Action Against Pak-Based Terror Groups
(This was originally posted in Hindustan Times by Shishir Gupta)
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval proposed an action plan against Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) framework. He said this during the meeting of national security chiefs in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe.
Doval also said that there is a need to monitor new technologies used by terrorists, including drones, for smuggling of weapons and misuse of dark Web, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and social media. Strongly condemning terrorism in all forms and manifestations, the NSA emphasized on the need for full implementation of United Nations resolutions and targeted sanctions against UN-designated terrorist individuals and entities. He said that perpetrators of terrorism including cross-border terror attacks should be expeditiously brought to justice.
He also said that there is a need to preserve gains made in last two decades in Afghanistan and give top priority to the welfare of its people. “India fully supports SCO Contact Group on Afghanistan, which should be more active,” said Doval. “Though India became SCO Member in 2017, it has physical, spiritual, cultural and philosophical inter-linkages for centuries with countries that now make up SCO,” Doval further said.
On the sidelines of the meeting of SCO’s national security chiefs, Doval had a long meeting with Russian NSA Nikolai Patrushev. They discussed contemporary developments of bilateral, regional and global significance. The two leaders also exchanged their views on the evolving situation in Afghanistan and the Asia-Pacific region during the meeting.
The Beijing-based SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organizations. India and Pakistan became their permanent members in 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, and the four Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
