Modi calls for intensifying cooperation to fight terrorism, violent extremism

Prime Minister said that India's Act East Policy is shaped around the ASEAN.

Asserting that India would lend steady support towards achieving a rules-based regional security architecture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged the ASEAN countries to join hands and intensify cooperation to fight terrorism and violent extremism.

Speaking at the 15th India-ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines, the Prime Minister said that India's Act East Policy is shaped around the ASEAN.

"India assures the ASEAN of its steady support towards achieving a rules-based regional security architecture that best attests to the region's interests and its peaceful development," Modi said.

"We have individually strived very hard to fight terrorism and violent extremism. It is time that we jointly address this challenge by intensifying cooperation in this crucial area," he added.

Prime Minister Modi, who is in the Philippines to attend the annual summit of the 10-nation ASEAN grouping, earlier today held wide-ranging talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe with a focus on further ramping up the special strategic partnership between the two Asian giants.

The situation in the Indo-Pacific is understood to have figured in the talks between the two leaders apart from several other issues of mutual concern.

Modi also held a bilateral meeting with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei focus of which was expanding cooperation in areas of trade, investment and renewable energy.

OneIndia News