Efforts of specific countries are not enough to fight terrorism, intl cooperation under UN aegis is needed - Russian Foreign Ministry
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - the efforts of some countries in the fight against terrorism are not enough, there is a need to establish effective international cooperation, Vladimir Andreyev, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for new challenges and threats, told Interfax on Monday.
"Unfortunately, one has to admit that the efforts of the relevant bodies of specific countries, Russia and our associates alone are not enough to avert terrorist attacks, even if the public is involved in these efforts, because this work cannot and should not be limited to the territory of a specific country or their groups. It's an affair of the entire world community and there is a need for truly comprehensive, universal and effective international cooperation," Andreyev said.
"It's not working now - many governments, primarily those of the West, have no political will. They are currently not ready to even set such goals. And not only in the 'old' spheres of law enforcement and defense and security cooperation (over politicized differences on Ukraine), but also in the new spheres of fighting terrorist ideology and propaganda, which are now super-vital. Where the Westerners now see just our encroachment on 'freedom of speech'," he said.
"Politics, which, of course, should be set aside, are preventing joint work," the Russian diplomat said.
"It is better to help, not interfere with the common goals, on the contrary, to feed on successful counterterrorist cooperation. Like it already happened once," he said.
"We are talking about saving people's lives - and it is an unconditional priority. Any new rules governing the organization of interaction do not need to be invented as well - international counterterrorist cooperation should be based on an already developed, primarily under the aegis of the UN, its Security Council, comprehensive and good set of principles from the 'progressive practices' of counterterrorism," Andreyev said.
"It can be said definitely, if there was a firm resolve on the part of all members of the international community to implement all these agreements, primarily, not to use terrorist and extremist groups for their selfish political and geopolitical goals - terrorism would simply have been beheaded and drained of blood a long time ago, including in terms of ideology. But I repeat, political will is needed for that," Andreyev said.
