India is halfway through the second year of its two-year term as an elected non-permanent member of the UN Security Council

India will host diplomats of the 15-nation UN Security Council on October 29 for a special meeting on counter-terrorism.

India is halfway through the second year of its two-year term as an elected non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

India’s tenure at the Council will end in December when the country will also preside as president of the powerful UN organ for the month.

India chairs the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee for 2022 and will in October host diplomats of the 15-nation Security Council, including the US, China and Russia, for the counter-terrorism committee's special meeting.

Current members of the Security Council are Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway and the UAE, along with five permanent members China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.

“Mindful of the increasing threat posed by the misuse of new and emerging technologies,” the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) has decided to hold a special meeting on this theme,” with the support of its Executive Directorate (CTED), in India on October 29, 2022, according to information on the Committee's website.

It said the special meeting would specifically focus on three significant areas where emerging technologies are experiencing rapid development, growing use by member states (including for security and counter-terrorism purposes), and the increasing threat of abuse for terrorism purposes, namely Internet and social media, terrorism financing, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

It is not very frequent that the Counter-Terrorism Committee meets outside of New York but the meeting in India will be the seventh time that this is happening. The most recent special meeting of the CTC outside of United Nations headquarters took place in Madrid, Spain, in July 2015, focusing on foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs).

Courtesy: The Tribune India : 4th Aug , 2022