Joint Press Statement on the 16th Meeting of the Canada-India Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism

March 27, 2019

The 16th meeting of the Canada-India Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and its Expert Sub-group was held in Ottawa on March 26 and 27, 2019. The delegations were led by Global Affairs Canada’s Director General for the Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Intelligence Bureau, Martin Benjamin, and India’s Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism from the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Mahaveer Singhvi, and involved senior representatives from both governments.

Over the course of two days, the Indian and Canadian delegations provided detailed briefings on their respective nation’s counter-terrorism priorities, strategies and legislative frameworks. The Joint Working Group reviewed threats posed by terrorist groups worldwide and in their respective countries and regions, including cross-border terrorism, reiterated condemnation of the recent terrorist attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, and discussed actions undertaken to counter terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization to violence. The delegations discussed the reference for the first time to the threat from Khalistani extremism in Public Safety Canada’s 2018 annual Report on Terrorism Threats in Canada.

The delegations reviewed efforts underway to address new and emerging challenges posed by virtual currencies, cyberspace, and terrorist propaganda shared on social and other media sites. The Joint Working Group also discussed multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, in the context of the United Nations, the Financial Action Task Force, and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

The meetings concluded with agreement on a Joint Action Plan outlining activities to further strengthen counter-terrorism collaboration, including through joint capacity building and information and technology sharing. India offered to host the 17th meeting of the Joint Working Group and the third Expert Sub-group in 2020.