India, UK call for strengthening international cooperation to combat cross-border terrorism in South Asia

India and the United Kingdom strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and emphasised the need for "strengthening international cooperation to combat the global menace of terrorism comprehensively including cross border terrorism in South Asia".

India and the United Kingdom strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and mfestations and emphasised the need for "strengthening international cooperation to combat the global menace of terrorism comprehensively including cross border terrorism in South Asia".

The two countries held the 14th meeting of the India-United Kingdom Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism virtually on January 21-22. Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism in the Ministry of External Affairs of India and Tom Hurd, Director General, Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism, Government of the United Kingdom, led the respective delegations of experts.

An External Affairs Ministry release said that the two sides reviewed the threats posed by UN-proscribed terrorists and terrorist entities and exchanged views on the proscription of terrorist individuals and entities as a tool to combat terrorism.

It was stressed that all countries should take an immediate and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under their control is used for terrorist attacks on another and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of such attacks.

The two sides exchanged ideas for further strengthening bilateral cooperation in the sphere of counter-terrorism including countering radicalisation and violent extremism, combating the financing of terrorism, preventing exploitation of the internet for terrorism, law enforcement cooperation, information sharing, aviation and maritime security and capacity building.

The challenges to combating terrorism faced during the COVID-19 pandemic were also discussed.

The two sides also discussed counter-terrorism cooperation in multilateral fora such as the UN and the FATF.

( With inputs from ANI )