The Indo-US joint working group on counter-terrorism, which met in Washington on Thursday, talked about bilateral cooperation in fighting the global menace of terrorism and asked the international community to come together to combat it in a sustained and comprehensive manner.
"Both sides strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and underscored it as a major threat to democracy, pluralism, international peace and security," said a statement from the Indian Embassy.
India and the US asked all states to abide by their commitment under the United Nations Global Counter Terrorism Strategy adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2006. They also asked for expeditious finalisation of the draft UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
"There can be no justification for any act of terrorism on any grounds. It is imperative for the international community to come together to combat terrorism in a long term, sustained and comprehensive manner," the statement said.
The Indian delegation was led by Ambassador K C Singh, Additional Secretary for International Organisations at the Ministry of External Affairs while the US delegation was led by the Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, Ambassador Dell Dailey.
Host of issues like regional counter-terrorism efforts, threat assessments in South Asia, Middle East and South East Asia, bio-terrorism, anti-terrorism assistance training programme and co-operation in the field of forensic epidemiology were discussed during the day-long meeting.
Other issues which were also discussed include terrorist financing and money laundering, ideological dimensions of terrorism, information sharing and widened cooperation for preventing terrorist acts.
The next meeting of the counter-terrorism joint working group will take place in New Delhi in 2008 on a mutually convenient date, the statement said.
