FATF (Financial Action Task Force), an international organization that monitors money laundering and terrorism funding, has elected senior Indian officer Vivek Aggarwal as its vice president. His tenure will be from July 2026 to June 2027. This is the first time that India has reached the post of Vice President of FATF. Vivek Aggarwal is currently the Secretary in the Ministry of Culture of India. The Government of India has called it a big achievement for the country.
Aggarwal said that this appointment is a recognition of India’s strong framework against money laundering and terrorist funding. After India got this post, the demand to put Pakistan again in FATF gray list has started rising. AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that India should work to bring Pakistan back in the gray list.
Owaisi raised demand for action on TRF
Owaisi had mentioned the car bomb blast that took place near the Red Fort area of Delhi in November 2025, in which 8 people died. The responsibility of this attack was taken by an organization called The Resistance Front (TRF). Owaisi said that TRF should also be included in the terrorist list of the United Nations. India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that getting this responsibility in FATF will further strengthen India’s fight against terrorism and illegal money.
Pakistan was in the gray list in 2018
Pakistan was put in the gray list of FATF in June 2018. Before this, he had also been in this list from 2013 to 2016. After about four years, in October 2022, it was removed from the gray list. India alleges that Pakistan is still not taking full action against some extremist organizations. Even after the Pahalgam attack, India had said that it would try to include Pakistan in the gray list again.
In a Reuters report in May 2025, Indian sources had claimed that Pakistan has still not been able to fulfill some of the FATF conditions. However, Pakistan’s experts do not consider this threat to be that big. Pakistan’s former investment minister Haroon Sharif says that FATF’s decisions are not political but are taken by collective consensus. Economic analyst Farrukh Saleem also said that the Vice President of FATF cannot single-handedly put any country in the gray list.
Pakistan surrounded by FATF conditions
At present there are 18 countries in the gray list of FATF. Whereas Iran, North Korea and Myanmar are included in the black list. If a country comes in the gray list, it may face major difficulties in foreign investment, loans and international financial transactions. Therefore, the debate on this issue has intensified in Pakistan also.
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