India and France on Thursday agreed to deepen cooperation on counter-terrorism, with a focus on tackling radicalisation, combating online propaganda and addressing the misuse of emerging technologies by terror groups.
The understanding was reached at the 17th meeting of the India-France Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism (JWG-CT) held in Paris. The Indian delegation was led by K D Dewal, Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism) in the Ministry of External Affairs, while the French side was headed by Counter-Terrorism Ambassador Olivier Caron.
Both sides strongly condemned the April 22 terrorist attack on civilians in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. They exchanged assessments on the threat landscape, including state-sponsored cross-border terrorism, the activities of terror groups in their respective regions and the situation in the Middle East, the MEA said in a statement.
The discussions also covered counter-terrorism challenges such as extremism, radicalisation, and the use of new technologies by terrorist organisations. The two sides reviewed cooperation in multilateral