Joint training, testing, data sharing — EU, India identify areas for counter-drone collaboration

First EU-India roundtable held on countering terrorist exploitation of drones held Thursday in Delhi. Meet organised by NSG in partnership with EU delegation & EU project.

India & the EU agreed to continue collaborating on unmanned aerial systems and learning from each other at the meeting in New Delhi | Pic courtesy: X/@EU_in_India

New Delhi: The European Union (EU) and India have Thursday identified potential areas to jointly cooperate on countering the exploitation of drones by terrorists and non-state actors.

Some of the areas identified during the first ever EU-India roundtable on countering terrorist exploitation of unmanned aerial systems in New Delhi are joint training and certification, testing, data sharing – especially in anti-drone systems and detection.

Airspace integration and collaboration, research and innovation including collaboration in start ups are also possible areas of potential areas of collaboration.

“1st EU-India track 1.5 dialogue on current & emerging threats associated with #UAS /#drones including ‘off-the-shelf’ drones by extremists & non-state actors come to an end. Both sides agreed to continue collaborating on #UAS & learning from each other,” said the delegation of the European Union to India on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

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1⃣st 🇪🇺🇮🇳 track 1.5 dialogue on current & emerging threats associated with #UAS /#drones including ‘off-the-shelf’ drones by extremists & non-state actors comes to an end.

Both sides agreed to continue collaborating on #UAS & learning from each other @nsgblackcats pic.twitter.com/MzSYGBu4AK

— EU in India (@EU_in_India) February 8, 2024

After the roundtable, EU ambassador to India Hervé Delphin called drone technology as “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.

“A very fruitful day of exchanges. #drones can be Dr Jekill and Mr Hyde: deliver public services & become criminal tools. Low cost but potentially damaging. This EU-India Seminar helped to refine ways of countering such threats,” Delphin tweeted.

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A very fruitful day of exchanges. #drones can be Dr Jekill and Mr Hyde: deliver public services & become criminal tools. Low cost but potentially damaging. This 🇪🇺🇮🇳 Seminar helped to refine ways of countering such threats. Great🤝!@HMOIndia
@ngsblackcats@eu_eeas@ESIWA_EU https://t.co/zfID1UeZiD

— Hervé Delphin (@EUAmbIndia) February 8, 2024

The day-long seminar sought to better understand the “range of current and emerging threats” particularly “consumer-grade UAS technology”, explained the EU delegation to India in a statement Wednesday.

“Commercial UAS have been developing rapidly in recent years, both in terms of technological sophistication and consumer availability. Violent extremists have exploited these inexpensive and adaptable consumer devices for different purposes, including reconnaissance and violent attacks,” the EU delegation’s statement said.

The EU and India have been cooperating on counterrorism, building on the EU project on Enhancing Security Cooperation in and With Asia (ESIWA). The round table was organised under the ESIWA project, in partnership with the National Security Guard (NSG) and the EU delegation to India.

(Edited by Tony Rai)