In an address to officers of the National Defence College here in the Nigerian capital, Vice President Hamid Ansari said societies that stand for peace and humanism have to increase their cooperation and strengthen efforts to prevent supply of arms to terrorists, disrupt terrorist movements, and curb and criminalise terror financing.
“We have to help each other by sharing intelligence, securing our cyber space, and minimising the use of Internet and social media for terrorist activities,” he said while delivering his lecture.
“Your country, like my own, has suffered the horrors of this scourge of humanity. Terrorism today has global reach, no city remains safe. There is a new level of threat to pluralist and open societies.
“Use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy is to be unequivocally condemned. There can be no distinction between good and bad terrorists. A terrorist is a terrorist; one who commits crimes against humanity cannot have any religion, or be afforded any political sanctuary.”
“No country in the world, howsoever powerful, can counter the emergent threats unilaterally. This, therefore, makes diplomacy doubly important for developing economies such as ours. Effective diplomacy is an important alternative to excessive defence spending.
“Therefore, it is important to devise methods of effectively participating in international fora, in influencing world opinion,” he said.
He said threats posed by religious fundamentalism, ethnic violence and economic disparities can no longer be ignored, particularly when globalisation and information technology can make changes “fast, furious and most unexpected”.
From Agencies, Feature image courtesy http://freevoice.club/
