Terrorism: India, US want intl community to fight

Washington, Nov 30: India and the United States have called upon the international community to come together to combat terrorism in a long term, sustained and comprehensive manner.

The India-US joint working group on counterterrorism which met here yesterday, also discussed bilateral cooperation in fighting the global menace of terrorism.

The Indian delegation, led by Ambassador K C Singh, Additional Secretary for International Organisations at the Ministry of External Affairs of India, met over a full day with the US delegation, led by the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Dell Dailey, who hosted the delegation.

Both sides condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and underscored it as a major threat to democracy, pluralism, international peace and security.

In their joint communique, they reiterated that ''there can be no justification for any act of terrorism on any grounds.'' India and the US 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 expeditiously.

They discussed, inter alia, regional counterterrorism efforts, threat assessments in South Asia, West Asia and South East Asia, bio-terrorism, on-going Anti-terrorism Assistance Training Program and co-operation in the field of forensic epidemiology.

Other issues discussed include 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.

UNI