India, Russia To Develop Cooperation In Combating Terrorism

India and Russia have achieved practical agreements on further development of cooperation in combating terrorism, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Oleg Chernov told journalists on Wednesday. He was heading a group of experts who held consultations on international and regional security with Indian counterparts in Delhi on January 14-15. According to Chernov, first of all, the sides agreed to advance the adoption by the UN Security Council of two conventions - the Indian project on universal struggle against terrorism and the Russian project on countering nuclear terrorism. In addition, they achieved agreement on joint actions on the world scene to work out legal international documents determining the common legal notion of terrorism and terrorists. "This is a very important issue for terrorists are moving from country to country and national laws are not common everywhere," Chernov stressed. In particular, it concerns the definition of terrorism, the issuing of arrest warrants and the implementation of Resolution 1373 of the UN Security Council. Chernov passed the letter of Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo to his Indian counterpart Brajesh Mishra. The letter contains the appraisal of the development of cooperation at the levels of interstate relations and the Security Councils of Russia and India. The letter confirms Rushailo's intention to pay an official visit to India in the first six months of 2002.