India, France vow to fight terror, ask Pak to act against militant groups

New Delhi: India and France, having suffered repeated terror strikes, decided to step up their anti-terror cooperation including intelligence sharing and called on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of Pathankot to justice.

During their extensive talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting French President Francois Hollande asked for decisive actions to be taken against Lashkar-e-Tayibba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Haqqani Network and other terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.

"From Paris to Pathankot, we saw the gruesome face of the common challenge of terrorism...I also commend the strength of your resolve and action these terrorist attacks. President Hollande and I have agreed to scale up the range of our counter-terrorism cooperation in a manner that helps us to tangibly mitigate and reduce the threat of extremism and terrorism to our societies.

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"We are also of the view that the global community needs to act decisively against those who provide safe havens to terrorists, who nurture them through finances, training and infrastructure support," Modi said at a joint press event with Hollande.

Agreeing on the imperative of having a comprehensive approach to address terrorism, the two sides resolved to step up their bilateral cooperation, under the supervision of annual strategic dialogues and joint working group on counter-terrorism meetings, to counter violent extremism and radicalisation, a joint statement said.

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It further said that India and France will cooperate to disrupt recruitment, terrorist movements and flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters, stop sources of terrorist financing, dismantle terrorist infrastructure and prevent supply of arms to terrorists.

"To this end, they committed to further develop exchanges in the fields of intelligence, finance, justice and police. They welcomed the strengthening of the cooperation between Indian and French counter terrorism authorities and units, in particular between their cyber security experts," it said.

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They also stressed that terrorism cannot be justified under any circumstance, regardless of its motivation, wherever and by whomsoever it is committed.

"Condemning the recent terror attacks in Pathankot and Gurdaspur in India, the two countries reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring to justice their perpetrators and the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which also caused the demise of two French citizens, and to ensure that such attacks do not recur in the future," the statement said.

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The two sides noted that terrorist activities and proxies supported from safe havens across Afghanistan’s borders pose a grave threat to peace, security and stability of Afghanistan.

In this regard, they emphasized the need to address this challenge by dismantling terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens and disrupting all financial and other support for terrorist groups and individuals.