Global response a must for terror, dirty money: PM
Modi inaugurates 90th General Assembly of Interpol in Capital; makes link between corruption and terror in opening address
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that financial crimes and terrorism were linked through “dirty money”, and urged Interpol to facilitate wider global cooperation to deal with the dual threat, rather than letting these issues be tackled at the local level.
Law enforcement agencies have to devise new procedures to deal with the menace, the Prime Minister said at the 90th General Assembly of Interpol, the international organisation that coordinates worldwide police collaboration and crime control.
“Let communication, collaboration and cooperation defeat crime, corruption, and terrorism,” Modi said, while inaugurating an assembly that is being held in India for the first time in 25 years, and has representatives from 195 countries in attendance. Union home minister Amit Shah and Interpol president Ahmed Naser Al-raisi were on the dais with Modi.
Calling on the global law-enforcement community to work
faster to “eliminate safe havens” for terrorists, criminals and the corrupt, Modi said when the “forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate”. “The pace of change of these dangers is faster than earlier. When threats are global, the response cannot be just local. It is high time that the world comes together to defeat these threats,” Modi said.
During his speech, Modi listed five principal international crimes — terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking, poaching and organised crime — and detailed why each of
them needs both a concerted and coordinated effort.
But he particularly drew the link between financial crimes and global terror.
“Corruption and financial crimes have harmed the welfare of the citizens of many countries. The corrupt find a way to park the proceeds of crime in different parts of the world. This money belongs to the citizens of the country from which they have been taken. Often, this has been taken from some of the poorest people in the world. Further, it is such money that is