The members of the G20 nations have reached a consensus on Saturday regarding countering terrorism and money laundering. The members in a joint statement have condemned 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, recognising the commitment of all religions to peace.
According to the G20 leaders’ declaration, terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. “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,” the statement stated.
The G20 leaders have also agreed to commit to supporting the increasing resource needs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF Style Regional Bodies and encourage others to do the same, including for the next round of mutual evaluations.
It said that the leaders 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. “We 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. We reiterate 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, we 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,” the declaration stated.
The members have agreed to take a holistic approach on the basis of global law which can effectively counter terrorism. The statement stated that 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. "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,” according to the declaration.