New Delhi: Just about three weeks after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi completed a successful visit to India, during which both sides had condemned cross-border terrorism and vowed to step up counter-terror cooperation, the two sides on Friday held the third meeting of the India-Egypt Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism.
The two countries “called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist networks, infrastructure, their financing channels and preventing cross-border movement of terrorists,” in what is seen as a thinly-veiled pointer towards Pakistan.
In a statement, New Delhi said, “India and Egypt strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism. The two sides reviewed threats posed by terrorist groups globally and in their respective countries and regions. They shared their respective counter-terrorism priorities and actions undertaken to counter terrorism, violent extremism conducive to terrorism, radicalization and terror financing.”
New Delhi added, “The two sides underscored the need for taking concerted actions against all the UNSC designated terrorist entities. They called upon all countries to take immediate, sustained, irreversible and verifiable actions to ensure that no territory under their control is used as a terrorist safe haven and to bring to justice perpetrators of terrorist attacks. They further called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist networks, infrastructure, their financing channels and preventing cross-border movement of terrorists.”
The Indian delegation was led by the MEA’s Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism, and the Egyptian side was led by its Foreign Ministry’s Director, Counter-Terrorism Unit, Mohamed Fouad Ahmed.
The MEA further said, “The two sides agreed to further strengthen bilateral counter-terrorism collaboration, including through training and capacity building efforts, exchanges of good practices and information sharing. The Joint Working Group also discussed multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation including in the United Nations and the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). In this context, both sides exchanged views on how to enhance the effectiveness of the GCTF, ahead of the next Forum’s Coordinating Committee Meeting that will take place in Cairo on May 4, 2023 during which Egypt will officially assume the Co-Chairmanship of the Forum.”
