The UK is funding new counter-drone technologies and working to understand and disrupt terrorist finances, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Saturday.
During a speech at a U.N. Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee meeting in New Delhi, Cleverly said technological advances had given terrorists “new opportunities that we must counteract.”
“Within the space of just two decades, terrorists have gone from circulating crackly voice recordings from the depths of Tora Bora, to global online recruitment and incitement campaigns, to live-stream attacks.”
Cleverly warned of “online incitement and racialisation of vulnerable people in far off countries,” calling on U.N. counterparts to “work together to fight terrorist ideologies online.”
He also said the UK was part of the collaboration to challenge the narrative of the ISIS terrorist group.
Cleverly said the UK government is funding new counter-drone technologies and working with partners at the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum to stop terrorists from “misusing drones.”
He said the UK is working with tech companies and international partners to “understand and disrupt terrorist finances, including in Somalia and North Africa. ”
UK–India Trade Deal
During the visit to India, Cleverly said he had a “positive and productive meeting” with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.“We discussed collaboration on trade, investment, defence, and security to improve the lives and livelihoods of our citizens,” the foreign secretary said on Twitter.
It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, that he hopes to make “good progress” on finalising a new trade deal, after the government missed the Diwali deadline for striking an agreement set by Boris Johnson.
Cleverly told Reuters that the UK is “really prioritising” the deal and “will continue to ensure that our officials and our ministers speak about regularly and work hard to deliver,” but declined to give a timeline.
“We’ve got a lot of work done. And it’s incredibly important that we remember that an extensive free trade agreement like the one we’re negotiating, it’s never going to be simple, but it’s an incredibly important vehicle to build on our already strong relationship and to make it really future-focused,” he said.
Previous sticking points included a steep import duty on British whiskey for sale in India. New Delhi is also keen on easier British visas for Indians.
Cleverly also said, “We want to make sure that our visa arrangements are quick and are easy, convenient.”
The countries want to double bilateral trade by 2030, from more than $31 billion (£27 billion) now.
Asked about a Group of Seven plan to cap Russian oil prices and its bid to get countries such as India to agree to it, Cleverly said Britain would not set New Delhi’s foreign policy. India and Russia have close defence ties, and India has become a big buyer of Russian oil since the Ukraine war started.
“I don’t think it would be right for me as a British politician to dictate policy to another country,” he said.
