India and France on Saturday reiterated their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations while naming terror outfits based in Pakistan.
"The two leaders reiterated their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism and terror-related incidents in France and India," a joint statement issued following bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting French President Emmanuel Macron said.
"Both leaders also affirmed that terrorism cannot be justified on any grounds whatsoever it may be and it should not be associated with any religion, creed, nationality and ethnicity," it stated.
Reaffirming their strong determination to eliminate terrorism everywhere it is to be found, the Modi and Macron agreed that more must be done by the international community to stem terrorism financing and welcomed the organisation of an International Conference on Fighting Terrorism Financing in Paris in April 2018 by the French government.
"They also called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, disrupting terrorist networks and their financing channels, and halting cross-border movement of terrorists like Al Qaeda, Daesh/ISIS (Islamic State), Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and their affiliates as well as terrorist groups threatening peace and security in South Asia and the Sahel region," the statement said.
It said that the two leaders agreed to enhance operational cooperation between the Indian and French counter-terrorism agencies and launch a new cooperation effort to prevent and fight radicalization, in particular online.
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"The two leaders agreed to strengthen counter-terrorism in multilateral fora such as UN, GCTF (Global Counter-terrorism Forum), FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and G20," the statement said.
Stating that both leaders called upon all UN member countries to implement the UNSC Resolution 1267 and other relevant resolutions designating terrorist entities, it said that they also agreed to work together on early adoption of the India-initiated Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in the UN.
--IANS
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