E-Paper
India, US condemn ‘use of terrorist proxies, cross-border terrorism’
India and the US on Tuesday condemned the use of terrorist proxies and cross-border terror and called for the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot attacks to be “brought to justice”.
India and the US on Tuesday condemned the use of terrorist proxies and cross-border terror and called for the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot attacks to be “brought to justice”.
A statement issued after a meeting of the India-US counter-terrorism joint working group in New Delhi didn’t name any countries but there was little doubt the two sides were referring to the activities of Pakistan-based terror groups, which were behind the two attacks referred to in the statement.
The two countries described terrorism as a serious threat to international peace and security and reaffirmed their strategic partnership for advancing security and prosperity for the two countries.
“Both sides strongly condemned the use of terrorist proxies, cross-border terrorism and all forms of international terrorism. They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice,” the joint statement said.
They exchanged views on the threats posed by UN-designated terrorist entities and “emphasised the need for concerted action against terrorist networks, “including Al-Qaeda, IS/Daesh, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Al-Badr”.
In another tacit reference to Pakistan, the joint statement said that the two sides “called on all countries to take immediate, sustained, and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under their control is used for terrorist attacks”.
Both sides further discussed steps to disrupt the ability of the terrorists to travel internationally, including through information sharing. Officials also discussed pressing counter-terrorism challenges, including countering terror financing, preventing radicalisation, use of the internet for terrorism, narco-trafficking and its linkages to terrorism and the use of new technologies such as unmanned aerial systems, virtual assets and the dark web for terrorism.
They also discussed mutual, legal and extradition assistance, law enforcement training, and capacity building cooperation.
Besides the meeting of the joint working group, a session of the India-US Designations Dialogue was held in the Indian capital from December 12 to 13. Mahaveer Singhvi, joint secretary for counter-terrorism in the external affairs ministry and Timothy Betts, acting coordinator for counter-terrorism in the US state department led their respective inter-agency delegations.
The US appreciated India’s leadership in global efforts to counter terrorism and the recent initiative of hosting a special meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee. The two sides also discussed counter-terrorism cooperation at multilateral forums such as the UN, GCTF, FATF and Quad.
