India, Brazil decide to deepen anti-terror cooperation

India and Brazil on Saturday vowed to work closely at the global anti-terror watchdog FATF to effectively confront challenges of terror financing and state-sponsored terrorism.

In their wide-ranging talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro urged all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, disrupting terror networks and financing channels as well as halting cross border movement of terrorists.

The two leaders asserted that global action must be initiated with ultimate objective of eradicating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including cross border terrorism, according to a joint statement issued after Modi-Bolsonaro meeting. In the talks, the two leaders agreed on having deeper bilateral cooperation to deal with specific terrorist threats.

"They underlined the need for all countries to ensure that their territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries," the joint statement said without naming either Pakistan or any other country. It said Modi and Bolsonaro reaffirmed that international terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace and security and called for concerted and coordinated global action to deal with the menace.

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"The prime minister and the president of Brazil also reiterated the mutual interest to work closely in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in issues related to money laundering and financing of terrorism, state sponsored terrorism, etc," the joint statement said. The FATF has piled up pressure on Pakistan to crackdown on terror networks operating from its soil.

A plenary meeting of the FATF in Paris next month will carry out a detailed review of whether Pakistan has complied with its action plan to contain terrorism. Depending on the outcome, FATF will decide whether Pakistan will be put under its "blacklist" along with Iran and North Korea. In the talks, Modi and Bolsonaro also called for early adoption of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

It said the two leaders also pitched for stronger international partnership in countering terrorism and violent extremism, including through increased sharing of timely, actionable and complete information and intelligence. The two leaders also pitched for the implementation of measures to combat terrorism as outlined in relevant UN Security Council resolutions and stressed that cooperation to combat terrorism should be guided in conformity with the principles of the UN Charter, international law and relevant international conventions, the joint statement said.

It said the two leaders expressed confidence in early conclusion of an agreement on combating international terrorism and transnational crimes. In the talks, the two sides also emphasised the importance of broad based bilateral defence cooperation in enhancing their strategic partnership. In this context, they encouraged structured dialogue. 

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