25 September 2001

G-7 Finance Ministers' Statement on Terrorist Financing

Finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrial countries appealed to all nations to cooperate in fighting terrorist financing.

In a September 25 statement, ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States promised to integrate national action plans to freeze the assets of terrorists and their associates and to pursue a comprehensive strategy to disrupt the financial infrastructure of terrorism.

They also said they wanted the United Nations (UN) to implement sanctions on terrorist financing more forcefully and asked its financial task force to start dealing with terrorism issues.

The ministers said that the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington were likely to delay economic recovery in the United States but added they expected the economy to begin growing again in the near future.

Following is the text of G-7 finance ministers' statement:

The Department of the Treasury
September 25, 2001
Statement Of G-7 Finance Ministers

We held a conference call today to discuss the economic and financial situation in our countries and our common cause in strengthening the international fight against the financing of terrorism.

For the US economy, we reported that the events of September 11 will delay the recovery that was underway. However, our economic policies and fundamentals remain strong and we expect a near-term return to sustained economic growth and stable financial markets.

Since the attacks, we have all shared our national action plans to block the assets of terrorists and their associates. We will integrate these action plans and pursue a comprehensive strategy to disrupt terrorist funding around the world.

We welcome the actions taken by other countries in recent days and call on all nations of the world to cooperate in this endeavor.

In particular, we stressed the importance of more vigorously implementing UN sanctions on terrorist financing and we called on the Financial Action Task Force to encompass terrorist financing into its activities.

We will meet in the United States in early October to review economic developments and ensure that no stone goes unturned in our mutual efforts to wage a successful global campaign against the financing of terrorism.