The Second Meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, Countering Violent Extremism and De-Radicalisation between Maldives and India was held in Male’ on 24th July 2023. The Maldivian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Ahmed Latheef and the Indian delegation was led by Secretary (West) in Ministry of External Affairs Sanjay Verma.
 
External Affairs Ministry said, the meeting was held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere that symbolises the time-tested and good neighbourly ties between Maldives and India and the energy, ambition and scale acquired by the bilateral relations under the leadership of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
 
Both Maldives and India strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism. Emphasising the need for strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in a comprehensive and sustained manner both countries reaffirmed counter-terrorism cooperation as an important aspect of maintaining security in the Indian Ocean Region. Both sides reviewed threats posed by terrorist entities that are under UN sanctions and emphasised the need for concerted action against all terrorist networks. They stressed on the urgent need for all countries to take immediate, sustained, verifiable, and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under their control is used for terrorist attacks on others and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of such attacks.
 
Both sides shared their experiences in combating terrorism and extremism and exchanged views on various areas of cooperation including countering radicalisation and violent extremism, combating financing of terrorism, preventing exploitation of the internet and cyberspace for terrorism and violent extremism, mutual information sharing, capacity building. Both sides also exchanged views on establishing institutional linkages between law enforcement agencies, security forces, customs, immigration and other relevant agencies and also on enhancing bilateral cooperation against organised crime and narcotics, repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of returnees.