Russia, India agree to bolster counter-terrorism cooperation

Moscow: India and Russia on Wednesday reaffirmed their readiness to bolster constructive counter-terror cooperation in the bilateral format and within the UN, BRICS and the SCO, as the two sides exchanged assessments of essential terrorist threats at the global and regional levels.

The 12th meeting of the Russia-India working group on fighting terrorism took place in Moscow. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov and his Indian counterpart Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, led the two sides during the meeting.

“Russia and India discussed both countries’ national experience in the fight against terrorism and extremism and exchanged assessments of essential terrorist threats at the global and regional levels," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The sides reaffirmed their readiness for bolstering constructive counter-terror cooperation in the bilateral format and on multilateral platforms, primarily, within the UN, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO),” the statement said.

The consultations took place ahead of the two-day meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) nations in Goa from Thursday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be attending the meeting.

The participants in the meeting stressed the importance of further developing international interaction in this sphere to fight the use of modern technologies for terrorist goals and the spread of terrorist and extremist ideology and to “counter financing and other financial support of terrorism,” it said.

The next meeting of the working group will take place in New Delhi within the timeframe agreed upon by the parties.