Blitz Bureau
WARNING against terrorists deploying new technologies, the Quad foreign ministers have reinforced their call for concerted international action against Pakistanbased Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), as well as Al-Qa’ida and the Islamic State outfit.
Emerging technologies
After their meeting in Tokyo, the Quad ministers said in a joint statement on July 29 that they were committed to working with international and regional partners to forestall “threats posed by the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes”.
“We reiterate the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qa’ida, ISIS/ Daesh, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and their proxy groups,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Foreign Ministers Penny Wong of Australia and Yoko Kamikawa of Japan said in their statement.
“We deplore the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones, tunnels, and information and communication technologies by terrorists and terrorist entities,” they said.
Attacks in India
Recalling the 26/11 Mumbai and the 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks, they called for “bringing the perpetrators of these attacks to justice without delay”. The ministers said the first meeting of the Quad Working Group on Counter-Terrorism established at the ministerial meeting in New Delhi last year had “fruitful discussions” at its first meeting and at the fourth tabletop exercise in Honolulu in December, and added that they looked forward to next exercise to be hosted by Japan in November.
