India-US ponders on “cross border terrorism”

NEW DELHI (India): The 15th meeting of the India-United States (US) ‘counterterrorism’ joint working group (WG) was held on Tuesday, the WG reviewed threats posed by terrorist groups worldwide and in their respective regions including “cross border terrorism” in the South Asian region.

According to an official statement, led by Indian foreign office (FO) joint secretary Mahaveer Singhvi and the US state department’s principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism Alina L. Romanowski, the Indian and the US delegations achieved important progress on counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.

Both sides committed to strengthening information sharing on some of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups and individuals and exchanged views on efforts to counter the financing and operations of regional and global terrorist organisations.

The two sides discussed international efforts to counter threats posed by foreign terrorist fighters. The WG also discussed international and bilateral cooperation on justice, law enforcement and capacity building efforts to counter terrorism and united nations (UN) security council resolution 2396.

Following up on the inaugural US-India counterterrorism designations dialogue in December 2017, the delegations discussed ongoing efforts to ensure the effective implementation of domestic and international terrorist designations.

The US will host the next meeting of the joint WG in 2019.