Need to delink terrorism from religion in fight against terrorism: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today emphasized on the need to de-link terrorism from religion as a weapon in the fight against terrorism and acknowledged that ISIS was one of the gravest challenges facing the international community.

In a bilateral meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, the Prime Minister discussed various issues, especially giving priority to the challenges that both nations faced when it came to terrorism, and praised the King's strong leadership in the fight against the same.

"There was a discussion on how do we prevent radicalisation of our youth and how do we counteract extremist messaging. In this context the Prime Minister said there was a need to de-link terrorism from religion and that the only way to combat international terrorism and the menace of organisations like ISIS was to have a global response," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup told a press briefing here.

Swarup added that Prime Minister Modi specifically referred to the long pending proposal for the comprehensive convention on international terrorism and said the time had now come for the international community to speak with one voice on this important issue and adopt this global convention.

The Prime Minster also thanked the King for the support that Jordan had provided when Indian citizens were trapped in Iraq and Syria and had to be evacuated.

King Abdullah reiterated that he valued India as a partner and wanted to increase security and economic cooperation.

Both leaders also had a constructive discussion on the United Nations Security Council reform, to which Prime Minister Modi mentioned his disappointment on India not being a part of the council.

"The Prime Minister mentioned that it was inconceivable that a country as large as India, which represented one sixth of humanity was not in the Security Council. This is something that we have been agitating for, for a long time. We want that the 70th anniversary of the UN be an occasion for the international community to step up to its obligations and reform this very important body of the UN," Swarup said.

In response, the King of Jordan extended his full support to India's stand and said that he had always supported New Delhi's aspiration to be a permanent member of the Security Council.