Calling for a unified global response against terrorism, India told the United Nations that there can be no justification for terrorism under any circumstances and urged the international community to reject double standards, strengthen action against terror financing, and expedite the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).

Addressing the UN General Assembly after the adoption of the Ninth Review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS) on Wednesday, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, said countries must work together to eliminate the ideology driving terrorism while ensuring perpetrators and their sponsors are brought to justice.

“India has been a victim of cross-border terrorism for decades. Our people have paid the price of terrorism in lives lost, families scarred, and societies shattered. This experience has shaped India's approach: there can be no justification for terrorism. Irrespective of any grievance, political cause or strategic calculation, terrorism in all its forms and manifestations must be condemned unequivocally,” Parvathaneni said.

He stressed that the international community must reject double standards in counter-terrorism and ensure full cooperation in holding perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism accountable.

“A terrorist is a terrorist!! We must work hand in hand to root out the murderous ideology without finding any grievance to justify terrorism,” he said.

India also cautioned against politicising the fight against terrorism or creating false equivalences.

"We must address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, but we must never confuse context with justification. We must uphold human rights and the rule of law, but we must also recognise that the first human right is the right to life, and terrorism is the most direct assault on this human right.”

Emphasising the need to curb terror financing, India said stronger financial intelligence sharing and stricter implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards were essential.

"The international community must improve financial intelligence sharing, strengthen implementation of Financial Action Task Force standards, and ensure that no jurisdiction remains a safe conduit for terror financing.”

India also flagged the growing misuse of emerging technologies by terrorist groups, expressing disappointment that the latest GCTS review failed to adequately address the issue.

Marking two decades since the adoption of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Parvathaneni recalled that India had proposed the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) even before the strategy was adopted in 2006.

“In doing so, the international community affirmed that terrorism is a threat to humanity, and it can only be defeated through international cooperation,” he said.

He added that the absence of a universally accepted legal framework continues to weaken global counter-terrorism efforts, particularly in prosecution, extradition and denying terrorists safe havens, funding and weapons.

“Nearly three decades of delay have hindered our collective efforts to combat terrorism. The time has come to demonstrate political will to conclude the CCIT,” he said.

Highlighting India's contribution to global counter-terrorism initiatives, including hosting the Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes and the No Money for Terror Conferences, India criticised the omission of the Delhi Declaration from the 2023 GCTS review.

India said this "reflects the unfortunate situation of how this Assembly is held hostage to petty bean counting! It is doubly unfortunate when the international community continues to tolerate this behaviour.”

Reiterating its stand against all forms of religious hatred, India said the UN should adopt a universal approach to combating prejudice.

"As this is the United Nations, a multilateral forum of universal membership, our lens too should be universal. While we condemn all acts motivated by Islamophobia, Christianphobia and antisemitism, this august body must acknowledge that such phobias extend to other faiths as well,” Parvathaneni said.

He concluded by warning that global efforts against terrorism would succeed only through genuine international cooperation and equal treatment of all terrorist threats.

“Only if we have the political will to counter it in all its manifestations; Only if there are no double standards; Only if there is no distinction between good or bad terrorists. Only if there is transparency and objectivity in the way sanctions regimes function to secure listings of genuine and evidence-based objective listing proposals; Only if exclusivist frameworks, new terminologies and false priorities are thwarted, could the menace of terrorism be successfully combatted by us together,” he said.