Manila, Nov 14 (UNI) The East Asia Summit on Tuesday pledged to speak with "one voice" against the use of chemical weapons and reaffirmed the commitment to the principles of "destruction of chemical weapons and non-proliferation of chemical weapons".
In the Leaders' Statement on 'chemical weapons', the leaders of East Asia bloc comprising of 10 ASEAN countries plus eight including - India, China, USA, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea, "reaffirmed" that the use of chemical weapons and toxic chemicals as "weapons anywhere" as prohibited
be considered as "reprehensible".
It further reaffirmed that - those who use chemical weapons and toxic chemicals as weapons "should be held accountable".
In a major push against terror finance - a stance taken up with utmost priority by the Narendra Modi government - the East Asia Summit Leaders in their declaration on 'Anti Money Laundering' and terror financing said that the grouping actually decided to: "intensify information sharing on terrorist and transnational crime organisations - including on money laundering and terrorism financing".
It may be mentioned here that India is a founding member of the East Asia Summit.
The East Asia Summit leaders also decided among other things to deepen cooperation in exchanging information on money laundering and terror financing.
The leaders also decided to encourage the East Asia Summit participating countries to accede to or ratify and implement the international counter-terrorism conventions and protocols - including the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
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