By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : India and the US have asked the world to come together to combat terrorism in a sustained and comprehensive manner, saying terror has no justification on any grounds.
The appeal came Thursday in a joint statement issued after a day-long meeting here of the Indo-US Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism to discuss bilateral cooperation in fighting terrorism.
Leading the Indian side was K.C. Singh, additional secretary for International Organisations in the ministry of external affairs. The State Department’s coordinator for counter terrorism, Dell L. Dailey, headed the US team.
Both sides called upon all states to abide by their commitments under the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2006 and called for finalisation of the draft UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism quickly.
They strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and underscored it as a major threat to democracy, pluralism, international peace and security.
They reiterated that there could be no justification for any act of terrorism on any ground. It was imperative for the international community to come together to combat terrorism over a long term and in a sustained and comprehensive manner, they said.
The group’s discussions focussed on regional counter-terrorism efforts, threat assessments in South Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, bio-terrorism, ongoing Anti-terrorism Assistance Training Programme and cooperation in forensic epidemiology.
Other issues discussed included terrorist finance and money laundering, ideological dimensions of terrorism, information sharing and widened cooperation for preventing terrorist acts. Both sides agreed to identify measures to strengthen institutional linkages leading to closer interaction and cooperation.
The next meeting of the counter-terrorism joint working group will be held in New Delhi in 2008, according to the statement.
The Indo-US Joint Working Group on Counter-terrorism was set up after a dialogue on security, non-proliferation, disarmament and related issues in London in January 2000. Its first meeting was held in Washington a month later.