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Intervention of Ambassador Ion Jinga in the Security Council open debate on the protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks
The Ukrainian Presidency of the UN Security Council organized, on 13 February 2017, the first open debate on the protection of critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks, a press release sent to ACTMedia informs. The event brought together representatives of UN agencies, NATO and INTERPOL, foreign ministers and deputy ministers and ambassadors accredited to the UN.
The Security Council also adopted a resolution on this subject, contributing to strengthening the legal framework in combating the terrorism. The event coincided with an international context requiring from the UN member states to maintain a high level of protection of critical infrastructure and to strengthen joint efforts in order to efficiently combat terrorist attacks and threats.
In his intervention, the Permanent Representative of Romania to the UN, Ambassador Ion Jinga, welcomed the opportunity offered by the organization of this debate, pointing out that critical infrastructures are essential to the functioning of contemporary society.
Stressing that the global dimension of terrorist threats and attacks require a global response, he said that the United Nations must play a key role in addressing this issue coordinately and effectively.
He underlined that Romania developed and implemented a National Strategy on critical infrastructure protection and a Cyber Security Strategy. At the same time, he said that "in Romania, efforts to protect critical infrastructure is based on cooperation between state authorities, economic operators and population, risk analysis based on cost-effectiveness, likelihood and impact, and on rendering the public - private partnership fully operational. This partnership is essential, given that a significant part of the infrastructure belongs to private companies or multinationals".
He showed that it was specifically this approach of the Romanian authorities, including an important component of prevention, that lead to the reality of having no record of Romanian citizen or resident alien in our country being displaced to conflict areas in order to join terrorist entities.
Evoking "the UN efforts to develop legislative and institutional framework which brings added value to the fight against terrorist threats as a tool available to all Member States", Ion Jinga said that Romania was among the sponsors of the resolution adopted the same day by the UN Security Council, which confirms once again the strong commitment of our country in the fight against terrorism.
Reiterating the importance of international judicial cooperation, the Romanian diplomat concluded that "efforts to protect critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks are essential, equally, respecting the international legal framework, and the adoption and implementation of appropriate national legislation in the field".
Background elements:
The subject of critical infrastructure protection falls within a more general context of the need of preventing and combating terrorist acts at the international level. The meeting held on 13 February 2017 follows the successive adoption, throughout 2016, of several resolutions of the UN Security Council either calling for the protection of different components of the critical infrastructures at the global level or approaching other relevant topics, such as: the resolution on the protection of aviation against terrorist attacks, the resolution on the international judicial cooperation international in combating terrorism and the resolution on the protection of personnel and medical facilities in armed conflicts.