India, US to expand intel sharing on terror threats from Afghanistan

India and the US called on the Taliban to ensure that Afghanistan is never again used to threaten or attack any country

India and the United States have agreed to expand sharing of intelligence inputs about potential terrorist threats, particularly from Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control on August 15.

The two nations will also step up cooperation in law-enforcement training, including at the central academy of police training in Hyderabad.

The senior officials of India and the United States had a meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism in Washington earlier this week. They decided to further expand terrorist threat information sharing and exchanged information about priorities and procedures for proscribing terrorist groups and individuals.

They called on the Taliban to ensure that the territory of Afghanistan is never again used to threaten or attack any country, shelter or train terrorists, or plan or finance terrorist attacks, according to a joint statement issued after the meeting. The two sides committed to continue close consultations on developments in Afghanistan and potential terrorist threats emanating from the country, which had gone back under control of the Taliban on August 15 last. They exchanged views on countering narco-terror networks and trans-national illegal weapons smuggling networks.

Read | G-20: PM to call for united approach over Afghan crisis

The inter-agency delegations of India and the US were led by Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary for Counter Terrorism at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and John T Godfrey, the acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the State Department of the American Government, respectively. They pledged to further expand cooperation on law enforcement, information sharing, exchanging best practices, and increasing strategic convergence on counterterrorism challenges.

The US reiterated its commitment to standing together with the people and Government of India in the fight against terrorism. The US side joined India to strongly condemn use of terrorist proxies and cross-border terrorism in all its forms and called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack to be brought to justice. They called for concerted action against all terrorist groups, including groups proscribed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 1267 Sanctions Committee, such as al-Qaeda, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

They discussed ways to prevent ability of international terrorists to travel. They also jointly decided to further expand terrorist threat information sharing, and exchanged information about priorities and procedures for designating terrorist groups and individuals.

The Indian and American officials shared best practices on countering terrorism financing and use of the internet for terrorist purposes and decided to continue counter terrorism cooperation in multilateral fora. They emphasised importance of upholding international standards on anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism by all countries, according to the joint statement. They discussed mutual legal and extradition assistance and opportunities for bilateral law enforcement training, including at the Central Academy for Police Training in Hyderabad, India. Both sides applauded ongoing Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) training.

Watch latest videos by DH here: