India and Australia discussed the emerging domestic, regional and international terrorism landscape and exchanged views on a wide range of areas of cooperation in counter terrorism, law enforcement, judicial cooperation and maritime security.
Both the countries condemned the heinous terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, and the Australian side reiterated its support and solidarity with India.
The two sides reaffirmed commitment to strengthening cooperation in the multilateral fora, including the UN, GCTF, FATF, IORA, ARF, NMFT and with QUAD partners, to combat global terrorism, during the 15th meeting of the India-Australia Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter Terrorism was held on 29-30 October in Canberra, Australia.
“The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Vinod Bahade, Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Ms. Gemma Huggins, Australia’s Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Thursday.
“Recognising the need for enhancing cooperation for effectively countering the challenges in countering terrorism, the two sides underlined strengthening cooperation in timely information sharing and concerted actions to counter the use of new and emerging technology for terrorist purposes, and discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in countering radicalisation and violent extremism conducive to terrorism,” the MEA said.
The Indian delegation also met officials of the Australian Federal Police Counter Terrorism Unit, National Emergency Management Agency, and Maritime Border Command; and visited the Australian Watch Office and the Crisis Centre.
“Both sides agreed to hold the next meeting of the Joint Working Group in Delhi on a mutually convenient date,” the statement added.