M A I N   N E W S

Leaders vow to end nuclear weapons
16 nations ink anti-terror pact

Almaty, June 4
Strongly condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, a 16-nation security conference adopted a declaration today asking the United Nations to play a “central role” in developing a framework for meeting the challenge to fight the menace.

“No consideration whatsoever can be invoked to justify terrorism,” said the Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue among Civilisations.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf were among the 16 leaders who agreed to the declaration adopted at the conclusion of the first summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

“We are fully committed to fighting terrorism and strengthening bilateral, regional and international cooperation, in accordance with the UN charter, required to meet this challenge. We emphasise the central role of the United Nations, its General Assembly and Security Council, in developing the framework for this,” it said.

The summit leaders also signed an ‘Almaty Act’ setting out CICA’s objective of enhancing cooperation through elaborating multilateral approaches towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

The Act also devoted a considerable portion to the threat posed by terrorism, illicit traffic in arms and drug trafficking.

“In order to eradicate this menace to peace and security, we shall reinforce and unite our efforts in order not to allow terrorism in any form to be prepared, assisted, launched and financed from the territory of any state and we shall refuse to provide terrorists with safe haven and protection,” the leaders said in the Act.

The leaders also pledged to support the efforts for the global elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and prevent proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Asserting that separatism was one of the main threats and challanges to security and stability, the Act also rejected use of religion as a pretext by terrorists and separatist movements and groups to achieve their objectives.

It, however, affirmed the right of people living under foreign occupation for self-determination in accordance with the UN charter and international law.

The Act decided that CICA heads of state or government would meet every four years preceded by meetings of Foreign Ministers who would interact every two years.

The two-page declaration reaffirmed the “key significance” of UN Security Council Resolution 1373 adopted after the September 11 terrorist strikes in the USA and pledged to fully implement it.

The declaration also asked CICA member states to work towards early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism and the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism by the UN.

Signatories to the document are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. PTI