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Thursday March 28, 2024

Pakistan, Russia hold comprehensive discussion on counter terrorism

Senior Pakistani and Russian officials on Wednesday held a comprehensive discussion on counter-terrorism and expressed grave concern over the rising threat posed by Daesh.

By Web Desk
March 22, 2018


ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistani and Russian officials on Wednesday held a comprehensive discussion on counter-terrorism and  expressed grave concern over the rising threat posed by Daesh.

The 7th Meeting of the Pakistan-Russia Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism was held here on Wednesday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The officials from both sides reaffirmed the commitment for enhancing bilateral cooperation for countering terrorism and agreed to cooperate at the United Nations and other international fora for eliminating terrorism, said a press released issued from foreign office on Wednesday.

"There was broad agreement on the fact that terrorism was a common global threat which required cooperative efforts of the international community for effectively eradicating it," the statement said.

The Pakistani officials  briefed the Russian delegation about the major successes the country had achieved in eliminating the terrorism through kinetic actions as well as implementation of the major anti-terrorism strategy known as National Action Plan on counter-terrorism, the statement said, adding the plan had resulted in significant improvement of Pakistan's security situation.

While acknowledging country's unmatched sacrifices, the Russian delegation highly appreciated Pakistan's contribution to the global fight against terrorism.

Both sides expressed grave concern over the rising threat posed by Da’esh. While major successes had been achieved in the fight against Da’esh in Syria and Iraq, the returning fighters from the conflict zones to countries of origin or third countries constituted a major security threat to various parts of the world, including this region. It was important for countries of the region to cooperate to counter this threat.

The Pakistani side was led by Foreign Ministry Counter-Terrorism Director General Ahmad Farooq, while the Russian side was led by Director of the Department for New Challenges of the Russian Foreign Ministry Ilya Rogachev. Both delegations included officials from relevant departments dealing with counter-terrorism.

During the meeting , It was agreed that the next meeting of the JWG would be held in Moscow in 2019.