India-UK hold 14th meeting of Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism

India and the United Kingdom on January 21 and 22 held 14th meeting of Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, virtually, the Ministry of External Affairs said on January 25. As per the official release, the Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism in the MEA and Tom Hurd, Director General, Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism in UK government led the respective delegation of experts. Both sides ‘strongly condemned’ terrorism in all its forms and underlined the importance of elevating global cooperation to combat “menace of terrorism” including the 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,” said MEA in a statement.

Read - VP Lauds DRDO Scientists For Taking India Close To Self- Reliance In Missile Technology

Read - 'Rahul Gandhi Sold India's Interest To China, Now He Wants To Weaken Army': Amit Malviya

India-UK reviewed terror threats

MEA further said that both India and the UK reviewed the threats posed by the terrorist proscribed by the United Nations (UN). They also exchanged thoughts on the proscription of terrorist individuals along with other entities as a tool to tackle the issue. Both nations jointly called for “immediate and irreversible” action to ensure no territory is under the control of such entities.

The ministry said, “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 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,” it said.

Further, the delegations also exchanged ideas to further enhance the bilateral cooperation in the sphere of counter-terrorism such as “countering radicalisation and violent extremism, combating financing of terrorism, preventing exploitation of the internet for terrorism, law enforcement cooperation, information sharing, aviation and maritime security and capacity building”. The India-UK meet on counter-terrorism came just a day before India's Republic day that could’ve hosted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the chief guest. Amid the concerns of the new variant of the novel coronavirus, British PM had cancelled his India trip but said that he hopes to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the UK during the G7 summit in June, for which Johnson has extended his invite. 

Read - India Logs In 131 More COVID Deaths, 13203 Cases

Read - Rahul Gandhi Seizes Opportunity As India & China Troops Clash At Sikkim Border; Attacks PM