World must come together to combat terrorism: Romanian Foreign Min

Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said on Monday the world must come together in fighting terrorism, especially financing of terror-related activities and create conditions which do not encourage such acts.

At an interactive session at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here, he also said Romania "strongly supports" India's proposal in the UN for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).

"We have to take measures to reduce and restrain different activities related to terrorism, especially financing of terrorism in different counties. And secondly, I believe we have to do our best to create conditions which would not encourage terrorism," Melescanu said.

"In the meantime, we have to adopt a general agreement on fighting terrorism. There is an Indian proposal at the UN (on counter-terrorism) and we are strongly supporting it," he said at the session titled 'Going Global or Staying Local: Romania's Agenda as a Connector between Europe and Asia'.

India had proposed to the UN a draft document in 1996 on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).

The event, hosted by the think-tank, coincided with the 10th anniversary of the horrific 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people, including 18 security personnel and two NSG commandos were killed, besides damaging property worth crores.

Melescanu, after his address, also fielded question on state-sponsored terrorism and multiple other issues, including the European Union, Brexit, Syrian crisis, Israel-Palestine issue and Indo-Pak relationship.

"What we say as a priority, we need to look into the roots of terrorism, what is creating it, whether due to financial issues, religious issues, whatever they may be we need the address root causes of it," the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania said.

On the India-Pakistan issue, he said the two sides are "neighbours, like brothers" and the issue is "extremely important" for both the countries.

"I also believe that Pakistan can play a very important role in finding a solution to situation in Afghanistan," he said.

"I believe you have to demonstrate a lot of goodwill, possibly to find a dialogue with the Pakistani authorities. Both countries have a serious level of knowledge, including in the nuclear field, and must try to find a solution, kind of dialogue for it," the minister said.

Melescanu, who is currently visiting India, also met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after the event and the two leaders held wide-ranging talks to strengthen ties between the two countries.

"Romania's economic dynamism and favourable business climate finds suitable match in India's ever-growing economic trends opening to the world. We are aware of the economic and social policies of PM (Narendra) Modi in expanding India's economic power through ambitious investment programmes while stimulating employment and welfare of the people," he said.

The Romanian foreign minister said his country "fully shares this vision".

"India's international reputation in education and Romania's growing profile in education and research and development fields should enlarge our bilateral perspectives. We are highly interested in effectively harnessing such possibilities," Melescanu said earlier in his address.

On the European Union-related issues, Melescanu said Romania will take over the EU's rotating presidency from January next year and "we would like the Brexit to happen in an orderly way".

"The UK contributes about 14 per cent to the GDP of the EU, and so, it exit will have immediate implications. Second, they (the UK) will be absent from general strategy of defence and foreign affairs of the EU. And the UK has an important role in that...So, our vision even after Brexit is that we keep Great Britain as closely as possibly to EU," he said.