India and UK push for boosting global efforts to deal with terrorism

India and the UK have strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and called for strengthening international cooperation to comprehensively combat the menace, including cross-border terrorism in South Asia.

At a two-day virtual meeting of the India-UK joint working Group on counter-terrorism, the two sides reviewed the threats posed by UN-proscribed terrorists and terrorist entities, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.

"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," it said in a statement.

The MEA said that the two countries exchanged views on the proscription of terrorist individuals and entities as a tool to combat terrorism besides discussing ways to cooperate in multilateral fora such as the UN and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

"India and the UK 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," it said in an apparent reference to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

The 14th meeting of the joint working group on counter-terrorism was held January 21-22.

The MEA said the two sides exchanged ideas for further strengthening bilateral cooperation in the sphere of counter-terrorism including dealing with radicalisation and violent extremism and combating the financing of terrorism.

It said two sides also discussed ways to prevent exploitation of the internet for terrorism, law enforcement cooperation, information sharing, aviation and maritime security and capacity building were also exchanged.

"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 United Nations and the FATF," the MEA said.

The Indian delegation at the meeting was led by Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary for Counter Terrorism in the Ministry of External Affairs, while the British team was headed by Tom Hurd, Director General in the UK's Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism.