India, France to boost anti-terror ties; askPakistan to bring Pathankot perpetrators to justice

NEW DELHI: India and France, victim of repeated terror strikes, on Monday decided to expand their anti-terror cooperation, including intelligence sharing, and called on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of Pathankot to justice.

During their talks, PM Narendra Modi and visiting French President Francois Hollande asked for decisive actions to be taken against Lashkar-e-Tayibba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Haqqani Network and other terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.

"From Paris to Pathankot, we saw the gruesome face of the common challenge of terrorism...I also commend the strength of your resolve and action these terrorist attacks. President Hollande and I have agreed to scale up the range of our counterterrorism cooperation in a manner that helps us to tangibly mitigate and reduce the threat of extremism and terrorism to our societies. We are also of the view that the global community needs to act decisively against those who provide safe havens to terrorists, who nurture them through finances, training and infrastructure support," Modi emphasized at a joint press event with Hollande without mincing any words.

Agreeing on the imperative of having a comprehensive approach to address terrorism, the two sides resolved to step up their bilateral cooperation, under the supervision of annual strategic dialogues and joint working group on counterterrorism meetings, to counter violent extremism and radicalization, according to a separate joint statement on combatting terrorism. This is the first time that India has a separate counter-terror joint statement with a Western country.