India, Australia vow to strengthen anti-terror cooperation

Canberra, Jun 24 (PTI) - India and Australia Monday pledged
to jointly fight terrorism, cooperating in intelligence
gathering and taking steps to counter money-laundering and
terrorist financing.

The two countries, in a joint statement, expressed their
strong support for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
and welcomed their decision to establish regular chief of
defence force-level talks, the first round of which will take
place in Australia soon.

The statement, released after a meeting between External
Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Australian
counterpart Stephen Smith here, said that the two sides need
to be united to fight against terrorism.

"Looking forward to the next meeting of the bilateral
joint working group on counter-terrorism and immigration in
New Delhi this year, they noted the need for practical
cooperation in areas such as intelligence, law enforcement,
border security and countering terrorist financing and money
laundering," the statement said.

The Ministers underlined the desire of both the countries
to strengthen intelligence cooperation, including in
anti-terrorism efforts. PTI