India, France resolve to enhance counter-terror cooperation

New Delhi | India and France have vowed to boost cooperation in combating terrorism extremism and radicalisation with both sides strongly condemning the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack.

The two sides deliberated on jointly tackling these threats at a meeting of India-France Joint Working Group (JWG) on counter terrorism that was held in Paris on Thursday.

"Both sides condemned the dastardly terrorist attack on innocent civilians on April 22 in Pahalgam," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

It said India and France also exchanged views on the "current threat assessment in the respective countries, including state-sponsored cross-border terrorism, activities of terrorists in the respective regions and the terror threat in the Middle East".

"Both sides also assessed the counter terrorism challenges, including combating extremism/radicalisation and the threat posed by the use of new technologies by terrorists," the MEA said in a statement.

It said the discussion on bilateral and multilateral cooperation focused on intensifying capacity-building measures through training and exercises.

The two sides discussed cooperation at the United Nations, FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and under the framework of NMFT (No Money for Terror).

India and France further discussed broadening the scope of counter-terror dialogue to include organised crimes, combating online propaganda as a focused bilateral effort, and exchanging information and sharing of experience on matters of mutual concern and interest.

The Indian delegation at the meeting was led by K D Dewal, joint secretary (counter-terrorism) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) while the French delegation was headed by Olivier Caron, French Counter-Terrorism Ambassador.