India, Cambodia call for firm counter-terrorism steps

India and Cambodia on Saturday agreed that the global community needs to see terrorism as a curse on mankind and take firm steps to safeguard global peace, security and stability.

Both Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Hun Sen "unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and underscored that there is no justification whatsoever for acts of terrorism and recognized that terrorism cannot be and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic groups," a joint statement issued after delegation-level talks said.

"They called for joint and concerted global efforts to eliminate terrorism in accordance with the principles of international law. They called upon all nations to adopt a comprehensive approach in combatting terrorism," the statement added.

Both also reaffirmed their collaboration in combating all forms of human trafficking especially of women and children by signing a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for prevention, rescue, recovery, repartiation and re-integration of the victims of trafficking.

Both sides affirmed that those responsible for committing, abetting, organizing and supporting terrorist acts must be held accountable and be punished and hailed the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

The two leaders also emphasized that it is the responsibility of all states to prevent financing of terrorist networks and terrorist acts.

"Terrorism cannot be used as an instrument of state policy for furthering narrow political objectives," both said.