Terming the just-concluded "Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction 2016" as "eventful", Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said that politics should be kept aside while dealing with disasters."Political issues should not become hindrance while dealing with disasters anywhere in the world," the Minister of State for Home Affairs told a press conference here.On being asked if India would help Pakistan in case of any disaster in the neighbouring country, the minister said there is no politics involved when one deals with such situations.He also informed that a secretary and not a minister represented Pakistan at the three-day conference held here from November 3.The minister also termed the conference a "global effort" and said it was a group of Asian countries, but the nations involved are ready to share their expertise and resources with any country in the world.
He said the conference emphasised the need for strengthening and developing standards and norms for new infrastructure. "It discussed the need for capacity building for enforcing standards, risk assessment of new infrastructure being created, use of latest scientific and technological knowledge for reducing risk and evolving a mechanism for continuing collaborative efforts in future," Rijiju said. The conference also outlined the need for applying new scientific and technological tools and knowledge for disaster risk reduction and urged the strengthening of regional cooperation for implementation of the Sendai Framework in Asia.The minister said that the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction 2016 was one of the biggest in the region, as 51 countries, nine United Nations organisations and a large number of NGOs participated in it.