Narendra Modi meets Vladimir Putin: India, Russia urge countries to stop cross-border movement of terrorists

St Petersburg: India and Russia on Thursday asked all countries to stop cross-border movement of terrorists and asserted that a decisive collective response from the international community without “double standards and selectivity” was required to combat the threat of terrorism. [caption id=“attachment_3507395” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Thursday. AP/PTI[/caption] The assertion to fight terrorism came in a vision document released by India and Russia after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin held wide-ranging talks. “We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stress that there can be no justification whatsoever for any acts of terrorism, whether based upon ideological, religious, political, racial, ethnic or any other reasons,” the two countries said in the joint declaration titled ‘A vision for the 21st century’. India and Russia asserted that they will continue efforts to combat international terrorism, which poses a great threat to the maintenance of peace and security. “We are convinced that the unprecedented spread of this threat requires decisive collective response on part of the entire global community, without double standards and selectivity, in accordance with international law and the UN Charter,” the declaration said. India and Russia urged all countries and entities to work sincerely to disrupt terrorist networks and their financing, and “stop cross-border movement of terrorists”. “We call for an early conclusion of negotiations on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism to strengthen the global counter-terrorism normative and legal framework to combat this scourge,” the statement said. The strong pitch against terrorism comes after Modi also raised the issue of combating the menace with the leadership in Germany and Spain. It comes just a day after India and Spain stressed that there should be “zero tolerance” to terrorism and called on the international community to end “selective or partial” approaches in combating the menace. Sharing common approaches to providing security in the use of information and communication technologies, India and Russia also vowed to keep working together for developing universal rules, standards and principles of responsible behaviour of the states in this context, on the basis of democratisation and a model representing multi-stakeholderism with primacy of the state, in global internet governance. “We recognise the necessity to activate bilateral interaction in this sphere on the basis of the Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Security in the use of Information and Communication Technologies,” the statement said. The two countries asserted that they are confident that they will continue to remain a role model for harmonious and mutually beneficial partnership and strong friendship between two states. “Building on the shared vision of development of bilateral relations, we will succeed in further realising the immense potential of India-Russia special and privileged strategic partnership for the benefit of our states and international community as a whole,” the statement said.