Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for New York on Wednesday to attend the United Nations General Assembly session on Saturday where India will push for reforms of the Security Council to reflect current realities and early adoption of a convention on terrorism that will provide a global framework to fight the menace.

Singh, who will be accompanied by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, would represent India at the high-level segment of the General Assembly on Saturday and deliver his address.

During the session, India, along with other members of the G-4 (Brazil, Japan and Germany), will work to push for reforms of the UNSC at the earliest for robust international security and peacekeeping operations.

The G4 members are keen on getting permanent membership of the UNSC.

Currently, India and Germany are non-permanent members of the Security Council. As the session takes places at a time of continuing global economic and financial uncertainties, India, as an emerging major economy, will reaffirm its commitment to working with the UN on furthering global economic and fiscal stability and balanced growth.

There is no meeting scheduled between Singh and US President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to leave New York before the Prime Ministers arrival.

However, Singh, who is attending the UNGA after a gap of two years, is likely to have meetings with others heads of state or government, officials said.

Eco slowdown and terrorism high on PM’s visit to UN General assembly

“Today, terrorists are not only truly globalised, but are also waging an asymmetric warfare against the international community. They recruit in one country, raise funds in another and operate in others,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said in UN.

“They have global logistical and supply chains; they have developed transnational financial systems; they use the latest and most sophisticated technologies and have command and control mechanisms that are able to operate across continents on a real-time basis,” he said.

Puri, who is also Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, was speaking at the UN Secretary General’s Symposium on International Counter-Terrorism Cooperation.

He said concerted international efforts are required to identify and expose the linkages that exist between terrorists and their supporters and to destroy terrorist safe havens, their financial flows and their support networks.

Countries, including India, have been victims of this scourge for several decades, with the 9/11 attacks bringing home to the western world its devastating consequences, Puri said.

Despite efforts by the international community, there has been no let up in terrorist violence and the world continues to confront the challenge emanating from the epicentres of terrorism, he said.

“The central requirement of an effective counter-terrorism strategy is the necessary political will to squarely face the challenge of terrorism. We need to adopt a holistic approach that ensures zero-tolerance towards terrorism,” Puri said.

He expressed hope that a long-delayed Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism would be adopted soon to put in place a legal basis for an effective counter-terrorism cooperation framework.

He said that technical assistance, capacity-building and sharing of best practices are vital components of successful collective strategies.

“We need to further strengthen international cooperation amongst prosecutors, police officers,and immigration and border officials through sharing and developing best practices in counter-terrorism efforts,” Puri said.

At the national level, he said, there is a need to develop strategies that restrict the emotional and political space available to terrorists to carry out their propaganda.

“We must support all efforts to enhance dialogue between and amongst civilisations, ethnicities and religions, and evolve a culture of tolerance, compassion and respect for diversity, especially amongst the young.”

The Counter-Terrorism Committee will be commemorating its establishment on September 28, 2011.

The Committee will also adopt an Outcome Document highlighting the progress achieved during the last 10 years and providing a roadmap for the future