India, Russia to work out plans to fight Afghan terrorism

November 18, 2000
Web posted at: 7:39 AM HKT (2339 GMT)

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- India and Russia are expected to work out measures next week to check suspected terrorism from Afghanistan, India's foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday.

Russia's first deputy minister of foreign affairs V.I. Trubnikov would meet Indian foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh Singh early next week in the first sitting of the Joint Working Group on Afghanistan, the foreign ministry spokesman said.

India and Russia had decided to set up the joint working group during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi in early October.

"All aspects relating to the Afghanistan situation will be discussed," said the spokesman, when asked whether the Indo-Russian talks would include intelligence sharing on terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

Russia accuses the Taliban of actively helping Chechen rebels while India has said militants fighting against its forces in Kashmir were from Afghanistan.

In a joint statement at the end of Putin's visit to India, both countries had said that Taliban controlled Afghanistan had become a breeding ground for religious extremism and terrorism, which posed a serious threat to regional and international security.

India and the United States have formed a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism while Britain and India are in the process of setting up one.

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