India-EU summit to boost counter-terror cooperation

India and the European Union (EU) will seek to step up bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet EU leaders in Brussels.

The 13th India-EU summit in Brussels is scheduled on March 30, just days after terror attacks rocked Belgium. It is set to see both sides emphasising on institutionalising judicial cooperation and coordination among intelligence organisations. Modi’s meeting with EU President Donald Tusk and European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels will also focus on stepping up cyber-security and counter-piracy cooperation.

The summit is taking place at a time when emergence of Islamic State with several terrorists from the EU nations in its ranks and recent terror strikes in Paris and Brussels renewed the focus on counter-terrorism cooperation in and beyond Europe.

The Eurojust, an EU agency set up in The Hague for dealing with judicial cooperation in criminal matters, is keen to step up cooperation with the Ministry of Home Affairs of the government of India, sources told Deccan Herald in New Delhi. 

EU officials are understood to have conveyed to New Delhi that cooperation between Eurojust and the judicial authorities of non-EU countries must be stepped up in order to combat global menaces such as cyber-crimes and attacks planned, coordinated and carried out by “foreign fighters” owing allegiance to IS and other terrorist organisations as well as the “lone wolves”.