India calls for Trans-national Cooperation to Counter Terrorism

(December, 13, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) India's Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon Thursday called for more trans-national cooperation to combat global terrorism.

"We in India have directly suffered the consequences of the linkages and relationships among terrorist organizations, support structures and funding mechanisms, centred upon our immediate neighbourhood, and transcending national borders," Menon told top diplomats and strategic experts while opening foreign policy dialogue with the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies in New Delhi.

The daylong dialogue was organised by the public diplomacy division of the external affairs ministry.

"Any compromise with such forces, however pragmatic or opportune it might appear momentarily, only encourages the forces responsible for terrorism," he said.

"Large areas abutting India to the west have seen the collapse of state structures and the absence of governance or the writ of the state, with the emergence of multiple centres of power," he said.

"The results, in the form of terrorism, extremism and radicalism are felt by us in India," he said while stressing that international terrorism remained a major threat to peace and stability.

Menon underscored India's emergence as a global force and its increasing integration into a rapidly globalising world.

"Our engagement with the global economy is growing rapidly, with trade in goods and services now exceeding $ 330 billion. Our needs from the world have changed, as has our capability," he said.