G-20 Leaders Vow to Cut off Terrorist Financing

Antalya, Turkey, Nov. 16 (Jiji Press)--After Friday's terror attacks in Paris, leaders of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies shared the determination to cut off terrorist financing at their two-day meeting in Antalya, Turkey, that ended Monday. The leaders issued "the G-20 statement on the fight against terrorism" saying, "We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the heinous terrorist attacks" in Paris on Friday and in Ankara on Oct. 10. "They are an unacceptable affront to all humanity," and "we reaffirm our solidarity and resolve in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and wherever it occurs," the statement said. The G-20 remains committed to cracking down on "the financing channels of terrorism" by enhancing intelligence sharing and cooperating in freezing terrorist assets and imposing financial sanctions, the leaders said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who chaired the G-20 summit, said at a news conference after the summit that the leaders agreed to show their decisive stance on the fight against terrorism. The rare statement for the summit for discussions on the global economy expressed the "resolve to work together to prevent and suppress terrorist acts" by the participants including U.S. President Barack Obama, who has described the Paris killing and last month's bombings in Ankara as "an attack on the civilized world." Noting that the G-20 economies are united in combating terrorism, the statement said, "The spread of terrorist organizations and significant rise globally in acts of terrorism directly undermine the maintenance of international peace and security and endangers our ongoing efforts to strengthen the global economy and ensure sustainable growth and development." Expressing concerns over "the acute and growing flow of foreign terrorist fighters," the G-20 members are resolved to address such a threat through operational information sharing, border controls to detect their travel, preventive measures and appropriate criminal justice response, the statement said. Meanwhile, a communique adopted by the G-20 leaders pointed to Europe's migration crisis by saying, "We call upon all states to contribute to responding to this crisis, and share in the burdens associated with it." The scale of the crisis is "a global concern with major humanitarian, political, social and economic consequences." The summiteers were to discuss efforts for sustainable global growth, the Syrian crisis and the migration crisis, but antiterrorism measures dominated their discussions in the wake of the Paris attacks. The leaders discussed ways to deal with violent extremism and other counterterrorism measures at their dinner Sunday. On the sidelines of the summit, Obama held informal talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin for over half an hour. Putin also separately met with the leaders of such nations as China, Japan and Saudi Arabia. END