Office of the Spokesperson
The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and India on the occasion of the eighteenth U.S.-India Counter-Terrorism Joint Working Group and fourth Designations Dialogue.
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The eighteenth meeting of the U.S.-India Counter-Terrorism Joint Working Group and the fourth session of the U.S.-India Designations Dialogue was held in Washington, D.C., on October 26-27, 2021. Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, and John T. Godfrey, U.S. State Department Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism, led their respective interagency delegations. Reaffirming counter-terrorism cooperation as an important pillar under the U.S.-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, both sides pledged to further expand cooperation on law enforcement, information sharing, exchanging best practices, and increasing strategic convergence on counter-terrorism challenges.
The United States reiterated its commitment to standing together with the people and government of India in the fight against terrorism. Both sides strongly condemned any use of terrorist proxies and cross-border terrorism in all its forms and called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack to be brought to justice. They also called for concerted action against all terrorist groups, including groups proscribed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 1267 Sanctions Committee, such as al-Qa’ida, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
In line with UNSC Resolution 2593 (2021), both sides called on the Taliban to ensure Afghan territory is never again used to threaten or attack any country, shelter or train terrorists, or plan or finance terrorist attacks. Both sides committed to continuing close consultations on developments in Afghanistan and potential terrorist threats emanating from there. The two sides also exchanged views on countering narco-terror networks and trans-national illegal weapons smuggling networks.
Consistent with UNSC Resolution 2396 (2017), the delegations discussed ways to prevent the ability of international terrorists to travel. They also jointly decided to further expand terrorist threat information sharing, , and exchanged information about priorities and procedures for designating terrorist groups and individuals.
The participants shared best practices on countering terrorism financing and use of the internet for terrorist purposes and decided to continue counter-terrorism cooperation in multilateral fora. Both sides emphasized the importance of upholding international standards on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism by all countries. They also discussed mutual legal and extradition assistance and opportunities for bilateral law enforcement training, including at the Central Academy for Police Training in Hyderabad, India. Both sides applauded ongoing Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) training.
The dialogue affirmed the growing strategic partnership between the two countries in the shared fight against global terrorism.
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