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"There cannot be any selective approaches
in dealing with terrorist groups or the infrastructure
of terrorism," Dr Manmohan Singh told the
United Nations General Assembly Sep 24 as he called
for an unrelenting fight against terrorism.
"Terrorism has to be fought across all fronts,"
he said in his 21-minute address that was greeted
with allround applause.
"Terrorism continues to rear its ugly head
and take a grievous toll of innocent lives."
Manmohan Singh said: "In South Asia there
are encouraging signs of cooperation in the area
of security, as exemplified in India's cooperation
with Bangladesh."
Calling upon the UN to once again embrace the
principles of internationalism to meet the global
challenges, he said: "We have no choice but
to meet these challenges."
"We will succeed if we adopt a cooperative
rather than a confrontationist approach,"
he said, seeking revitalisation of the UN General
Assembly and reforms and expansion of the decision
making Security Council to "reflect contemporary
reality".
"More importantly, we will succeed if our
efforts have legitimacy and are pursued not just
within the framework of law, but also the spirit
of law," Manmohan Singh said asserting that
actions taken under the authority of the UN "must
respect the unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty
and independence of individual states".
Among the key challenges facing the comity of
nations, the prime minister identified a troubled
world economy, terrorism, social and political
upheaval in West Asia and North Africa, the still
unresolved Palestinian question and iniquitous
growth.
To address what he called the "deficit in
global governance", Manmohan Singh called
for making the UN "stronger and more effective".
He also called for pursuing the reform of governance
systems of international institutions with "speed
and efficiency", saying "we should not
allow the global economic slowdown to become a
trigger for building walls around ourselves through
protectionism or erecting barriers to movement
of people, services and capital".
Noting that nuclear proliferation continues to
remain a threat to international security, Manmohan
Singh said the "action plan put forward by
(then) prime minister Rajiv Gandhi provides a
concrete road map for achieving nuclear disarmament
in a time bound, universal, non discriminatory,
phased and verifiable manner".
Expressing the confidence that people's faith
in the UN Charter and objectives of the United
Nations "through statesmanship, foresight
and collective efforts", he declared "India
stands ready to play its part in this noble endeavour".
(IANS)
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