G7 adopts anti-terrorism plan of action

The G7 leaders on Friday adopted a plan of action to combat terrorism and violent extremism, which includes bolstering intelligence-sharing and greater cooperation for border security.

This was G7's response to facing up to "the growing number of terror attacks, especially those aimed at vulnerable sites due to their open access and limited security barriers," read the declaration adopted at the Ise-Shima Leaders' Summit in Japan.

G7 leaders called for "further collective and coordinated efforts" to counter this "urgent global security threat", which besides governments, includes the private sector, civilian organisations and the society as a whole, said the declaration.

The heads of the world's seven largest economies also denounced "atrocities and abuses of human rights...perpetrated by the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations," which pose a serious challenge "to peace and international security, as well as to common values and principles for all humanity", EFE news reported.

The statement warned against the exploitation of internet and social media for terrorist purposes, including "recruiting and financing" for such organisations, and also underlined the need to heighten security for air travel to respond to growing militant threats.

Moreover, the group of the world's most industrialized nations advocated choking off channels of finance for terrorist organisations, and spoke against payment of ransoms to such groups, which they termed one of their main "sources of income" that "incentivizes future incidents of kidnapping".

The G7 has pledged to translate all these principles into concrete measures, and to regularly follow-up on their anti-terrorism policies to improve coordination.

--IANS

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