New Delhi: France will hold the next ‘No Money for Terror’ conference later this year as a part of its presidency of the G7.
French diplomatic sources Friday said that at the third session held during the ongoing G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, Paris announced it will hold this edition of the conference to “address emerging forms of terrorist financing”.
“As early as 2018, France played a key role in combating terrorist financing by organising the first ‘No Money for Terror’ conference. This event reaffirmed the central role of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) in efforts to tackle the various sources of terrorist financing and led to the adoption of the Paris Agenda, an international action plan in this field,” the French diplomatic source said.
They added: “France will host the fifth No Money for Terror conference as part of its G7 presidency. This will provide an opportunity to promote an international agenda to address emerging forms of terrorist financing.”
The ministerial conference was hosted by France in 2018, with FATF support. The FATF, launched in 1989 by the G7 member-states, initially aimed at combatting money laundering and eventually expanded to combat terrorist financing in 2001.
India hosted a ‘No Money for Terror’ conference in 2022. The FATF establishes standards and assesses the global financing networks for terrorism. It issues black and grey lists as a part of its assessments of high-risk jurisdictions that are not taking enough action against money laundering and terror financing.
For India, the FATF is an important body, as it has in the past publicly identified Pakistan as a jurisdiction under increased monitoring—the grey list—as it works with the organisation to address deficiencies in combatting terrorism financing.
India has been pushing the FATF to include Islamabad in the grey list after it was removed from the list in October 2022 because the FATF deemed that Pakistan had taken steps to combat terror financing.
After Operation Sindoor, India is reported to have begun preparing dossiers to share with the FATF on Pakistan’s continued support for terrorist organisations. Countries on the grey or black lists maintained by the FATF may struggle to raise investments and aid for their economic needs.
Islamabad has consistently been on programmes of the International Monetary Fund, to stave off oncoming economic crises in the last half decade. India and France have maintained a close partnership at multiple international fora.
The French are hosting the G7 Leaders’ Summit this June in the city of Evian. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to travel for the summit. The External Affairs Minister is in France for a two-day visit starting Thursday to attend the foreign ministers’ meeting as an outreach member invited by France.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)