By KUNA
New Delhi : India Tuesday rued at faltering international efforts at nation building particularly in Afghanistan and called upon the global community to unite against terror groups and non-state actors. “Trends indicate that international efforts at nation building are faltering on many counts in Afghanistan. This is a potentially dangerous situation,” India’s Defence Minister A K Antony said while inaugurating the three-day 10th Asian Security Conference at Delhi today.
“Out of the 343 non-state armed groups operating in the world, 187 groups operate in the Asian region,” Antony said, adding: “Nations must devise ways and means to cooperate to effectively counter terrorism.” “The world today realises that no nation can consider itself to be immune from terrorism. The lessons learnt elsewhere can prove to be useful in devising our policies. Similarly, other nations too can benefit from our experiences,” the Minister said.
“The non-state players do not recognise any territorial boundaries. They utilise latest global communication and transport networks and rely on garnering international support.
Their common objective is to disturb existing state apparatus, destablise neighbouring countries and create new ones based on ethno-cultural identity, or territory and have abstract notions of carving out a separate and unique identity of their own based on ethnicity, religious and tribal basis,” he added.
“Most of these non-state players are not fighting for a national identity, or territory and have abstract notions of carving out a separate and unique identity of their own based on ethnicity, religious and tribal basis,” he pointed out.
Suggesting a three-pronged strategy to meet various challenges effectively, Antony said: “The first one is to maintain an active dialogue process, not only among governments, but also defence establishments to build strong channels of communication and dispel mistrust. Secondly, we must develop mechanisms to share intelligence about terror groups, criminal elements, drug cartels and other transnational networks that foment violence and subvert states.” “Thirdly, we must attempt to devise common solutions to common challenges that threaten our collective security. We need to develop multilateral frameworks to promote dialogue and prepare strategies for cooperative action,” he added.
India has been the target of disruptive elements and non-state actors for several years, the Minister said, adding the major powers of the world then believed that they would be immune to such elements and had as such little sympathy for its concerns. ”However, now all nations realise and accept the need for greater cooperation in effectively meeting such challenges,” he added.
“The challenges for the Asian region and indeed all the nations the world over are of a similar nature,” he said and called upon the Asian states to guard against the outbreak of conventional wars and the newer forms of conflict.
The Security conference is being organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) — India’s key state-run think tank dealing with international and national issues.
The three-day meet, with the theme ‘Asian Security in the 21st Century’, is focusing on the myriad challenges to Asian security with particular reference to the strategic outlook of major political actors in Asia, the emerging challenges of the nuclear order, future of Afghanistan and the challenges of the transnational terror networks. Noted Asian, US and Australian security experts are participating in the meet.