India agrees to stay on as advisory board member of UNCCT

By
Daily Excelsior
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UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8: India has agreed to UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s offer to remain a member of the advisory board of a UN centre on counter-terrorism for an additional three years.
“We would like to express our consent to the offer of the Secretary-General to India to continue as a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center (UNCCT) for an additional three years starting from April 2, 2015,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji said in his statement to the 9th meeting of the board.
“We would continue to share with this important center of counter-terrorism our experience in fighting the menace of terrorism,” he said.
Mukerji said India agrees with the assessment that the new contribution of USD 100 million would inject new dynamism into the work of UNCCT.
He, however, said that the finances are only one aspect of the initiative.
“Proper implementation and close monitoring of the projects holds the key,” he said while cautioning that the USD 6.8 million earmarked for projects till December 2015 should be judiciously used.
Mukerji also supported the idea of building UNCCT into a center of excellence.
“We need to expand the capacity of the center, and in this regard we would like to suggest that UNCCT may now look at having an independent infrastructure, character and workforce,” he said.
The UNCCT was established in 2011 within the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) to assist in meeting capacity-building needs of member states, and to strengthen United Nations’ counter-terrorism expertise.
The Centre engages with the over 30 CTITF entities with expertise on a broad spectrum of counter-terrorism related issues.
The centre’s advisory board is chaired by Saudi Arabia and has 22 members including China, Russia, Pakistan, UK and the US.
The board provides guidance to the UNCCT Executive Director on the Centre’s annual plan and programme of work including annual budget, programmes, projects and proposals. (PTI)
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