Terrorism has become a global phenomenon and it requires a comprehensive response so that terrorists of "all shades and affiliations" are countered without any differentiation, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said today.
Terrorism was one of the major issues of discussion between Parrikar and US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter during their meeting at the Pentagon.
"Terrorism was a key topic discussion in (all) my discussions (here). Terrorism has become a global phenomenon and requires a comprehensive response. Terrorists of all shades and affiliations must be countered without any differentiation," Parrikar told reporters in a joint press appearance with Carter.
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The US Defence Secretary said that terrorism in South Asia has been and remains a serious problem.
"We have regular conversations with India both about counter-terrorism and about regional security issues. And obviously, terrorism of all kinds in South Asia has been and remains a serious problem," he said.
"India has been attacked and is continuously threatened with attack from terrorists, (just like) we are as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan are. We have independent relationships with all three of those, and counter-terrorism isn't the only thing we do with all three of those. But counter-terrorism is an important thing that we do with all of them," he said in response to a question.
Carter said that counter-terrorism "is a key common interest" with India.
"And with respect to India, I'll just say that counter-terrorism clearly is a key common interest. We work a lot together on that. And then we have a wide range of geopolitical, strategic and technology areas of cooperation as well. So it's a very wide-ranging relationship. In today's world, you can't leave out terrorism," Carter said.
