Male, 24 Jul: India and the Maldives on Monday strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms, including cross-border terrorism, as both countries reaffirmed counter-terrorism cooperation as an important aspect of maintaining security in the strategically vital Indian Ocean Region.
The two countries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation on immigration matters on Monday between the Maldives Immigration of the Maldives and India’s Bureau of Immigration.
The Second Meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, Countering Violent Extr-emism and De-Radic-alisation was held here in a cordial and constructive atmosphere, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release.
The Indian delegation was led by Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West) Ministry of External Affairs and the Maldivian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Ahmed Latheef.
Emphasising the need for strengthening inte-rnational cooperation to combat terrorism in a com-prehensive and sustained manner both countries reaffirmed counter-terrorism cooperation as an important aspect of maintaining security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Both sides reviewed threats posed by terrorist entities that are under UN sanctions and emphasised the need for concerted action against all terrorist networks.
They underlined the urgent need for all countries to take immediate, sustained, verifiable, and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under their control is used for terrorist attacks on others and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of such attacks, the External Affairs ministry said.
“Maldives and India str-ongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manif-estations, including cross-border terrorism,” it said.
Both sides shared their experiences in combating terrorism and extremism and exchanged views on various areas of cooperation including countering radicalisation and violent extremism, combating financing of terrorism and preventing exploitation of the internet and cyberspace for terrorism and violent extremism.
They also exchanged ideas on mutual information sharing, capacity building and establishing institutional linkages between law enforcement agencies, security forces, customs, immigration and other relevant agencies.
India and the Maldives exchanged views on enha-ncing bilateral cooperation against organised crime and narcotics, repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of returnees, the ministry said in a press release. (AP)