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NEW DELHI (AP) — India will contribute half a billion dollars to United Nations efforts to fight global terrorism as new and emerging technologies used by terrorist groups pose new threats to governments around the world, it said. said the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Saturday.

The money will go to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Trust Fund and will further strengthen the organization’s fight against terrorism, S Jaishankar said while addressing a special meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee in the UN in New Delhi.

This is the first time that such a conference, focused on challenging the threats posed by terrorist groups in the face of new technologies, has been held outside the UN headquarters in New York.

Jaishankar said new technologies such as encrypted messaging services and blockchain are increasingly being misused by terrorist groups and malicious actors, creating an urgent need for the international community to take action to combat the threats

“Internet and social media platforms have become powerful instruments in the toolbox of terrorist and militant groups to spread propaganda, radicalization and conspiracy theories aimed at destabilizing societies,” he said. in his keynote speech.

Jaishankar also highlighted the growing threat of the use of unmanned aerial systems such as drones by terrorist groups and criminal organizations, terming them as a challenge for security agencies across the world.

“In Africa, terrorist groups have used drones to monitor the movements of security forces and even UN peacekeepers, making them vulnerable to terrorist attacks,” he added.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly reiterated the dangers of unmanned aerial platforms, saying such systems were being used to inflict terror, death and destruction.

“Drones are currently being used to target critical national infrastructure and civilian targets in Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine,” he said. “That is why we have sanctioned three Iranian military commanders and an Iranian company involved in the supply of drones.”

The special conference began on Friday in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, which witnessed a massive terrorist attack in 2008 that left 140 Indian nationals and 26 citizens of 23 other countries dead by terrorists who had entered to India from Pakistan.

Jaishankar said on Friday that India regretted the inability of the UN Security Council to act in some cases when it came to proscribing terrorists for political considerations, undermining its credibility and collective interests. He did not name China but referred to its decision to block UN sanctions against leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based extremist group designated as a terrorist organization by the UN.

India and the United States called for the sanctions earlier this year. China suspended the proposed listing of the two terrorists for sanctions on technical grounds, saying it needed more time to study their cases.

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