Asia faces 'one of the severest security situations': Interpol

Asia faces one of the severest security situations in the world, with spreading international terrorism, regional conflicts and cybercrimes posing an unprecedented challenge for policing, the Interpol today said.
The 190-member international police organisation, however, said it was ready to work with police officers in Asia to contribute to Asian security, but called for improvement in law enforcement cooperation and security governance reforms.
Interpol President Meng Hongwei said security situation in Asia was "one of the severest" in the world, "with incessant regional turbulence and conflicts impacting peace and stability."
"Spreading international terrorism, increasing organised crimes, rampant emerging crimes and cybercrimes are posing unprecedented challenges for police," Hongwei said at the 23rd Interpol Asian Regional Conference that began here today.

The three-day meet themed - 'Law Enforcement Cooperation in Asia: current and future challenges' - brought together delegates, including heads of security agencies and government officials, from 33 countries of the region to discuss issues of human and drugs trafficking, terrorism and cybercrimes.
Inaugurating the event, Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda said "no single country can rely solely upon its own capabilities" to address transnational and organised crimes.

"The adverse effects of such crimes and criminalities cannot be ignored because crime knows no boundary, and security can no longer be labelled as the agenda of a single country," he said adding, "thus, cooperation and multilateralism are indispensable in dealing crimes."

He stressed on boosting the national security to cope with "new threats and challenges" in the context of development in information and communication technology. "The web of global interdependence is growing complex," Prachanda added.
Hongwei assured of the Interpol's readiness to work with "our fellow police officers in Asia, through enhanced international law enforcement cooperation", to provide better security products for the people in Asia and the world.
Inspector General of Nepal Police Upendra Kanta Aryal said the biggest challenge for law enforcement agencies was to act with predictability in the age of uncertainty as "our strengths and limitations" were being challenged by criminals.

"Terrorism, extremism, both cybercrime and cyber-enabled crimes, money laundering, human trafficking and smuggling, online child exploitation, wildlife crimes, trafficking of illegal narcotics, match fixing and the list of various new dimensions of transnational crimes may be never-ending," Aryal said.