New Delhi: India and the US Saturday called for additional proscription by the United Nations (UN) of individuals linked to terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad, ISIS and al-Qaeda, after the two countries held their 21st meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter Terrorism.
“Both sides emphasized that confronting terrorism requires concerted action in a sustained and comprehensive manner. Against this backdrop, the two sides renewed their commitment to strengthening multilateral cooperation in the field of countering terrorism including in the UN, Quad and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),” read the joint statement issued after the JWG.
It added: “The two sides called for additional designations of ISIS and al-Qa’ida affiliates, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and their proxy groups, supporters, sponsors, financiers and backers, under the UN 1267 sanctions regime, ensuring their members face a global asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo.”
The LeT and JeM have operated from across India’s border in Pakistan—a claim Islamabad has long denied. Pakistani authorities have in the past even claimed that the LeT is defunct.
However, in a setback for Islamabad, the US earlier this year designated The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the LeT, as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
The significance of the designations and consensus between New Delhi and Washington over continued operations of the LeT and JeM strikes at the heart of Islamabad’s repeated denials of the existence of terrorist outfits on its soil.
The TRF twice took credit for the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 people dead in India’s Jammu & Kashmir in April this year, only to later backtrack. India launched Operation Sindoor in May, striking at nine terror complexes located across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied J&K. The 87-hour conflict was paused after India and Pakistan arrived at a bilateral understanding.
Days after the Pahalgam terror attack, the UN Security Council had condemned it, making no mention of the role of the TRF. The Pakistani leadership took credit for ensuring no mention of the terrorist outfit in the UNSC statement.
The JWG meeting between India and the US comes as both New Delhi and Washington have increased cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies in the recent past. Both sides “reviewed a wide range of traditional and emerging threats and challenges” such as the recruitment of terrorists, the abuse of technologies for terror purposes and terrorist financing.
India and the US also strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, as well as the recent attack near New Delhi’s Red Fort last month. Despite the political issues between India and the US in recent months, in particular the differences that have yet to be bridged on trade, other areas of cooperations, especially in the strategic sectors, have continued.
The JWG meeting took place on 3 December. The Indian delegation led by Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism) in the Ministry of External Affairs Vinod Bahade. Monica Jacobsen, Senior Bureau Official in the Bureau of Counterterrorism in the Department of State led the American delegation.
Quad counterterrorism working group meets
The Quad countries—India, Japan, Australia and the US—held the third meeting of the Counterterrorism Working Group (CTWG) on 4 and 5 December in New Delhi. India is the current rotational chair of the informal four-nation grouping.
“Quad partners unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism. They also expressed their condolences for the heinous terror incident on 10 November 2025 near the Red Fort in Delhi. They called for the perpetrators, organizers, and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice and urged all UN Member States to cooperate in doing so,” a joint statement issued Saturday by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The statement added that the Quad member countries “exchanged assessments” on the terrorism threat “landscape” including any developments in the larger Indo-Pacific region. A discussion on the “full spectrum of counterterrorism cooperation” and associated measures to address current challenges was also held.
Bahade and Jacobsen led the Indian and US delegations respectively at this meeting as well. Gemma Huggins, Ambassador for Counter Terrorism, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade led the Australian delegation, while Minami Hiroyuki, Ambassador in-charge of International Cooperation for Countering Terrorism and International Organised Crime led the Japanese delegation.
The activities of the Quad have been streamlined in recent years. However, the Quad leaders have yet to meet this year under India’s rotational chairmanship, given the current state of ties between New Delhi and Washington, Australia has been pushing for the Quad Leaders’ Summit to be held in the first half of 2026.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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