Need to delink terrorism from religion, says Narendra Modi in Riyadh

Riyadh: Terming terrorism as the enemy of humanity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said there was a need to "delink" religion from it and asserted that "segmented and partial" approaches to counter the menace will not be effective.

Pressing for united global efforts to deal with the scourge, Modi said there can be no distinction between "good" or "bad" terrorism and that it has "no caste, colour, creed or religion".

Appreciating Saudi Arabia's leadership role in fighting terrorism in the Middle East, Modi said India was committed to working with Riyadh as well as with its partners in the region to ensure that the world is a better and safer place to live in.

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The Prime Minister said India has sought to challenge and repudiate the terror narrative that global counter-terrorism efforts are directed against any particular religion or ethnic group.

"In this context, we deeply appreciate the leadership role being played by Saudi Arabia in the region to fight this menace," he told leading daily Arab News in an interview during his two-day visit to the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia, a country known as the spiritual home of Islam, recently formed a major coalition of 34 Muslim nations to fight terror, particularly the ISIS. Saudi Arabia and India have a counter-terror mechanism as well.

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"To defeat terrorism, all those who believe in humanity have to be united. We need to delink religion from terrorism.

Terrorism should be dealt in a comprehensive manner. Segmented and partial approaches have historically proven to be at best suboptimal," Modi said.

"There can be no distinction between 'good' or 'bad' terrorism," he said in a veiled reference to Pakistan, a close ally of Saudi Arabia.

Modi said both India and Saudi Arabia recognise that no cause can justify an act of terror.

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He noted that India and Saudi Arabia have come together to cooperate in eradicating the scourge of terrorism.

Hailing the role of King Salman bin Abdulaziz in nurturing the Indo-Saudi partnership, Modi said building further on the strategic partnership with the powerful nation was one of the foreign policy priorities of his government.

To defeat terror, the Prime Minister said governments across the world should enhance cooperation in intelligence sharing, law enforcement, developing best practices and technologies as well as in extradition arrangements and capacity-building.

"India has adopted a comprehensive approach through dealing with its individual elements, including controlling the spread of extremist ideology, plugging financing routes, building a counter narrative to radicalisation through efforts to stem training and recruitment by terrorists," Modi said.

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Modi also listed other counter-terrorism steps taken by India like "strengthening our laws to prosecute terrorists and their associates, forging a network of international partnerships on threat assessment and operational cooperation."

Seeking concerted global action against terror infrastructure, he said a strong collective action is required by the global community and that there was a need for increasing the effectiveness of UNSC Resolution 1267.

"States must cooperate toward early finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism under the UN umbrella mooted by India way back in 1996," Modi asserted.

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The Prime Minister heaped praise on the King, saying "King Salman has led Saudi Arabia with great maturity and foresightedness during one of the most challenging times."

Asked about Palestine issue, Modi said India supports a negotiated solution, resulting in a sovereign independent, viable and united state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.

"India's continued commitment to the Palestinian cause has been reiterated during the first ever state visit of the President of India to the state of Palestine in October last year," he said.

Asked about prospects in India for Saudi companies to invest in energy projects, Modi said both sides are committed to elevate "our buyer-seller relationship into a strategic partnership in the energy sector based on mutual complementarities and interdependence".

"We have to explore significant areas of cooperation matching India's traditional strengths and the availability of the resources in Saudi Arabia -- considerable potential exists for establishing joint ventures in petrochemical complexes, refineries and fertilizer plants," Modi said.

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"We are in the process of a major expansion of our refining capacity to become a regional hub for refined products and we look forward to Saudi investments in joint ventures with Indian public sector units (PSUs) in upstream and downstream sectors in India, Saudi Arabia or in third countries," he said.

The Prime Minister also invited invite Saudi companies -- both public and private sectors -- to come and invest in Indian infrastructure, including smart cities, power, refrigeration, supply chains, ports, highways and warehousing.

"We would also welcome the participation of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF)," he said.