PM Modi to address 90th Interpol general assembly today
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday will address the 90th Interpol general assembly that will be attended by delegations from 195 member countries comprising ministers, police chiefs of countries, heads of national central bureaus and senior police officers.
The general assembly will be held from October 18 to 21 here.
Prime Minister Modi will address the 90th Interpol general assembly on October 18 at around 1:45 pm in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.
The meeting will be attended by delegations from 195 Interpol member countries comprising ministers, police chiefs of countries, heads of national central bureaus and senior police officers.
During the joint press briefing held by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the INTERPOL in New Delhi's Pragati Maidan, Jürgen Stock, Secretary General of the INTERPOL, said: "We will be addressing a range of global security issues and how these can be addressed through the unique platform, which is INTERPOL."
Adding further, he emphasised: "It was to gain a better view of the threats faced by the law enforcement that we produced the first INTERPOL Global Crime Trend Report, which will be presented to our membership during this General Assembly."
Praveen Sinha, Special Director of the CBI, was also present. Both the senior officials stressed that organised crime networks are making billions of dollars, and the fact that less than one per cent of the global illicit financial flows are intercepted and recovered or rather, nearly 99 per cent of stolen assets remain in criminal hands, should be a greater concern to everyone.
"Combined with estimates of the global cost of cybercrime which is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025, brings us to the basics of policing – follow the money," Stock said.
INTERPOL has developed its global stop-payment mechanism, the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol, which in the past 10 months alone has helped member countries recover more than 60 million dollars in criminal proceeds from cyber-enabled fraud.
"Our Global Crime Trend Report also highlighted the massive increase in online child sexual exploitation and abuse, figures which are only set to increase. We know that cybercrime and online child abuse are significantly underreported, often because victims are ashamed or in cases of fraud, embarrassed, which means that the figures we see are just the tip of the iceberg," the Secretary General of the INTERPOL said. Further, he maintained that this is why we have several resolutions at this General Assembly encouraging greater action by member countries to use INTERPOL resources in combating these crimes.
The general assembly is Interpol's supreme governing body and meets once a year to take key decisions related to its functioning.
The meeting is taking place in India after a gap of about 25 years, it was last held in 1997.
India's proposal to host the Interpol general assembly in 2022 at New Delhi coinciding with celebrations for the 75th year of India's independence was accepted by the assembly with an overwhelming majority.
The event provides an opportunity to showcase the best practices in India's law and order system to the entire world, the statement said. Union Home minister Amit Shah, Interpol President Ahmed Naser Al Raisi and Stock as well as the CBI director will be present on the occasion.
