Pressure increasing on countries collaborating in acts of terrorism: MEA

Following the Indo-French agreement to scale up the range of counter-terrorism cooperation to tangibly mitigate and reduce the threat of extremism, the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday said that the world getting less tolerant towards terrorism and that there is an increased pressure on nations that collaborate in acts of terrorism.

"We have been effective in getting the international community to look at terrorism in the manner they should have been looking at. The way countries reacted to the Pathankot attack points to the direction in where the world is going. There's a global pressure on countries that collaborate and connive in acts of terrorism. Level of tolerance towards terrorism going down," Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told the media here.

Briefing about the much talked about Rafale fighter jet deal, he said the financial aspect of the deal was yet to be hammered out and asserted that there is interest on both sides to come through with this deal as soon as possible.

"There has been considerable progress in the negotiations but the financial side is yet to been agreed on. There was an MoU which was signed between the two Defence Ministers pertaining to the IGA. There will be offsets in the agreement. As of now its fly away condition of aircraft," Jaishankar said.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with French President Francois Hollande at the Hyderabad House here following which they issued a joint statement highlighting endeavours by both nations especially in counter-terrorism.

"The senseless terror attacks in Paris and Pathankot, and in other parts of the world are a gruesome face of one such challenge. Excellency Hollande, I share the sorrow and grief of the people of France on the loss of innocent lives in the Paris attacks. I also commend the strength of your resolve and action to these terrorist attacks," Prime Minister Modi said.

India and France also signed a Memorandum of Understanding over the purchase of 36 Rafale jets, costing India around Rs 60,000 crore.