India questions Secretary General candidates on terrorism

India has questioned prospective UN Secretary General candidates on how they intend to strengthen the counter-terrorism architecture of the world body and plan to achieve long-pending reforms of the Security Council.
For the first time in the 70-year-old history of the UN, candidates for the post of the UN Secretary General were questioned by member states on their vision and plan of action, "a game changing process" aimed at increasing transparency on how the world's top diplomat is elected.
India's Permanent Representative to UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking on behalf of the G-4 nations of Brazil, Japan, Germany and India, questioned former prime minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres and former Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim last week during the open briefings about how they intend to speed up the Security Council reform process.

Speaking in his personal capacity, he questioned them on terrorism saying the UN's "counter-terrorism" architecture is "dispersed" and member states "don't have even one contact point to turn to if we have to address issues of counter terrorism".
India has been pressing for early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), a long-pending legal framework which would make it binding for all countries to deny space to terror groups.
Akbaruddin asked the candidates how they will ensure CCIT will be made the "rule-making" exercise to counter the global scourge.

Guterres, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the General Assembly had in 2005 supported the early reform of the Council but added that the member states will have to work together to ensure reforms are achieved without further delay.

On terrorism, he said the UN was able to approve a strategy on terrorism but has so far not been able to approve an "international convention on terrorism. That is why we lack some key instruments" in tackling terrorism.
He said he will work closely with the General Assembly and Security Council to see "how we can find mechanisms to be more effective in addressing not only the needs to fight terrorism but the ways to avoid some of the mechanisms terrorists utilises in today's global society".
Kerim said that it must be ensured that the more than one billion people who follow the Islamic faith are not offended by insisting that there is Islamic terrorism.

For 2016/17, the deficit is projected to reach 3.5 per
cent of GDP and is on track to meet the medium-term target of 3.0 per cent of GDP.
On inflation, the report forecast consumer price inflation for India at 5.7 in 2017, declining slightly to 5.4 in 2018.
The report said the world economy expanded by just 2.2 per cent in 2016, the slowest rate of growth since the Great Recession of 2009. World gross product is projected to grow by 2.7 per cent in 2017 and 2.9 per cent in 2018, a slight downward revision from the forecasts made last May.

Although a modest global recovery is projected for 2017-18, the world economy has not yet emerged from the period of slow growth, characterised by weak investment, dwindling trade and flagging productivity growth, the report added.
Launching the report here, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Lenni Montiel underscored the "need to redouble the efforts to bring the global economy back on a stronger and more inclusive growth path and create an international economic environment that is conducive to sustainable development".
It added that global oil demand continued to grow in 2016 but the pace of growth was slower than in 2015 as the positive boost from low oil prices to consumption growth waned. "Oil demand was driven mainly by robust consumption in the large emerging economies, particularly China and India," the report said adding oil demand is expected to continue strengthening in line with the projected improvement in global growth. Growth in oil demand will remain supported mainly by the United States and the large emerging economies, particularly China and India.

Growth in developing economies slowed to a meagre 3.6 per cent in 2016, the slowest pace of expansion since the global financial crisis, mainly due to lower commodity prices, weak global trade and persistent uncertainties in the world economy. Going forward, average growth in developing economies is expected to pick up to 4.4 per cent in 2017 and 4.7 per cent in 2018 on the back of a moderate recovery in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Western Asia.
The report noted that fragilities in the banking sector and stressed balanced sheets of corporates remain important challenges for some economies. It cited the Indian government's commitment to a USD 3.7 billion package to recapitalise state-owned banks, saying various regulations have been introduced in order to reduce banks' financial exposures and to encourage private participation in the banking sector.

"Although countries should try to avoid a sudden tightening of monetary and liquidity conditions in the outlook period, policy measures will critically depend on the evolution of external factors, such as oil prices," it said.