New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday stressed the need to address the “double standards” in countering terrorism and highlighted the specific challenges with which the counter-terrorism architecture is currently grappling.


Presiding over the 'UNSC Briefing: Global Counterterrorism Approach: Challenges and Way Forward', Jaishankar said, “A challenge is how do we deal with double standards, both inside and outside this Council. For too long, some have persisted with the approach that terrorism is just another instrument or stratagem. Those invested in terrorism have used such cynicism to carry on.”






“It is not just plain wrong but could be downright dangerous, even for the very people whose toleration extends this far,” he added.


Notably, the minister’s remarks were a strong reference to repeated holds and blocks on proposals by India to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists, in the UN Security Council's sanctions committee by veto-wielding permanent member China.


“The suggestion that states who are apparently capable on everything else but are only helpless when it comes to terrorism is ludicrous. Accountability must therefore be the bedrock of counter-terrorism,” Jaishankar said.


He also underlined the four specific challenges that counter-terrorism architecture is currently dealing with - terror financing and State culpability, ensuring the integrity and accountability of the counter-terror multilateral mechanisms and their working methods.


The minister also described terrorism as an existential threat to global peace and security and said it knows no borders, nationality, or race.


“We have seen the expansion of Al-Qaida, Da’esh, Boko Haram and Al Shabab and their affiliates. At the other end of the spectrum are ‘lone wolf’ attacks inspired by online radicalization and biases,” EAM Jaishankar said, adding, “We cannot forget that old habits and established networks are still alive, especially in South Asia. The contemporary epicentre of terrorism remains very much alive and active, whatever gloss may be applied to minimize unpleasant realities.”


"We cannot let another '9/11 of New York' or '26/11 of Mumbai' happen again," Jaishankar added.