New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) India continued to engage partners in cooperation on counter terrorism through Joint Working Groups on Counter Terrorism (JWG-CT) with 26 countries, the latest annual report (2024) released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) detailed while highlighting the country’s strong resolve in initiating collective action against terrorism.

India has been engaging with regional and multilateral bodies such as BIMSTEC, G20, ASEAN Regional Forum, SCO, BRICS, EU, FATF and the QUAD Forum on Counter Terrorism.

Joint Working Group meetings on Counter Terrorism (JWG-CT) were held with the US, Kazakhstan, France, European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

India participated in the meeting of the Group of Legal Experts (GLE) of Regional Anti Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (RATS SCO) Council held in Beijing, China.

At the ASEAN level, the 11th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC)+India Consultation was held in Vientiane, Laos.

The 9th Annual BRICS Counter Terrorism Working Group Plenary and its Sub-Groups’ Meetings were held in July 2024 in Moscow while India also hosted the 8th Meeting of the BIMSTEC SubGroup on Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursor Chemicals held in New Delhi.

On the multilateral front, India engaged with various bodies during the year, participating in the regional workshop on sharing good practices for enhancing rehabilitation and reintegration strategies which was organised by UNODC in association with the Government of Sri Lanka in Colombo.

The FATF Working Group meeting and Plenary were held in Singapore during which India’s Mutual Evaluation Report was adopted, placing the country in the “regular follow-up” category.

This status indicates that India has achieved a high level of compliance with FATF Recommendations and immediate outcomes.

India also attended FATF’s Working Groups and Plenary meeting in October.

India participated at the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) Trans-regional Group Meeting and 23rd Coordinating Committee Meeting held in Nairobi and the 24th Coordinating Committee Meeting and the Ministerial Meeting of GCTF held in New York in September 2024.

India also participated in the 40th Plenary meeting of Eurasian Group on Money Laundering and financing of terrorism (EAG) held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. India’s participation in the ‘Dushanbe Process High-Level Conference – the Kuwait Phase’ continued at the same time with participation in the November meeting held in Kuwait.

India participated in the QUAD Technical Exchange and Workshop on C-WMD Threats in Sydney. The 2nd meeting of the QUAD Counter Terrorism Working Group and 5th QUAD Table Top Exercise were held in Tokyo.

Counter Terrorism also remains one of India’s top priorities at the United Nations, where India advocated for a comprehensive multilateral action to counter terrorism, provision of capacity building support to member states, effective implementation of UN CT-related sanctions as well as strengthening collective action against terrorism.

India actively supported the capacity-building efforts of the UN Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT), and has been supporting a call for greater autonomy of the office.

India also emphasised for greater synergies between UNOCT agencies and international forums such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to promote and implement terror financing standards, counter the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes and advocate for the ‘right to justice’ for victims of cross-border terrorism, among others.

Heightened interactions among these forums will facilitate the early finalisation and adoption of the Convention on Countering of International Terrorism (CCIT) thereby providing a legal definition of ‘International Terrorism.’

In 2024, India contributed $500,000 to the UN Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism and participated in the 23rd Coordination Committee meeting and the 14th Ministerial meeting of the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF).

India also participated in the Ministerial meeting of the Group of Friends of Victims of Terrorism (GOFVOT). India further participated in the periodical meetings of the Advisory Board to the UN Counter Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) chaired by Saudi Arabia.

In keeping with its commitments on CT issues, India participated in the Global Conference on Victims of Terrorism held in Spain’s Vittoria.

–IANS

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