India and France on Wednesday sought concerted action against terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen and al-Qaeda, including bringing the perpetrators of terror attacks to justice speedily.
In an apparent reference to Pakistan, a joint statement issued after a meeting in Paris of the India-France joint working group on counterterrorism said the two sides condemned all forms of terror activities, including cross-border terrorism.
The two countries also “stressed the need for all countries to ensure that territories that are under their control cannot be used to plan [and] launch terrorist attacks against any other country, shelter or train terrorist fighters”.
France has consistently backed India’s efforts at multilateral forums such as the UN Security Council and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to counter the activities of Pakistan-based terror groups and individuals. It also played a key role in the sanctioning of JeM founder Masood Azhar by the Security Council.
“Both sides exchanged views on various areas of cooperation in the sphere of counter-terrorism, countering illegal narcotic drugs and arms smuggling, and expressed their will to keep sharing information on countering radicalization and violent extremism, combating the financing of terrorism, preventing misuse of the internet for terrorist or violent extremist purpose, acting against internationally designated entities and individuals,” the Indian Ministry of external affairs said in an statement .
