As victims of major terror attacks, both India and France on Saturday urged the international community to do more to stem terrorism financing even as the two nations resolved to launch a new cooperation effort to prevent and fight radicalisation, particularly online.

In their joint statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron called upon all the countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, disrupting terrorist networks, and halting cross-border movement of terrorists like al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, as well as other terrorist groups threatening peace in South Asia and the Sahel region.

Both the leaders also said that in addition to pursuing “excellent cooperation” between the elite intervention forces — India’s National Security Guards and its French counterpart GIGN — and the investigation agencies, they will enhance operational cooperation between the Indian and French counter-terrorism agencies. The two sides have also decided to intensify cooperation in cyber security and intelligence sharing.

The two agreed to strengthen counter-terrorism in multilateral fora such as UN, GCTF, FATF and G20 and called upon all United Nations’ member countries to implement the UNSC Resolution 1267 and other relevant resolutions designating terrorist entities. The leaders also agreed to work together on early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in the UN.

With regard to civil nuclear cooperation, an agreement for which was signed in 2008, the two leaders expressed satisfaction over the conclusion of the Industrial Way Forward Agreement between India’s NPCIL and French EDF for the implementation of six nuclear power reactor units at Jaitapur, Maharashtra. The two leaders reiterated the goal of commencing works at the Jaitapur site by the end of 2018, and encouraged NPCIL and EDF to accelerate the contractual discussions in that respect.

Once installed, the Jaitapur project will be the largest nuclear power plant in the world, with a total capacity of 9.6 GW. One of the major sticking points of the project was India’s rules and regulations on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages applicable to the Jaitapur project on which the two sides have now reached an understanding.

As for cooperation in the field of Space, the two sides released a “Joint Vision” document which spells out the concrete areas of future cooperation in this area. Modi and Macron acknowledged, in particular, the ongoing cooperation between their space agencies to realise the third joint satellite mission --- TRISHNA, meant for eco-system stress and water use monitoring and also accommodation of French instrument on India’s OCEANSAT-3 satellite.

With regard to cooperation in educational, science and technology, cultural and people to people exchanges, both Modi and Macron welcomed the signing of a bilateral partnership agreement on migration and mobility, which will facilitate student and professional mobility between France and India by simplifying the conditions for entry and long-term stay in the two countries. They underscored the necessity of greater youth exchange programmes for promotion of understanding of each other’s cultures and welcomed the launch of the “France-India Programme for the Future”, a French initiative aimed at fostering youth exchanges. The leaders also encouraged universities to increase the number of student exchanges, with the aim of reaching 10,000 students by 2020.

Modi and Macron also noted the strong upsurge in tourist exchanges between the two countries. A target of one million Indian tourists in France and 3,35,000 French tourists in India by 2020 has been set.

With an already robust economic partnership between the two countries, and growing bilateral trade, the two leaders felt that this momentum should be sustained with the aim of raising trade in goods to 15 billion Euros by 2022.

As Strategic Partners, the two countries share converging views on key regional and global issues and continue to consult and coordinate closely with each other on matters of common interest. France reaffirmed its support for India’s candidature for a permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Modi thanked Macron for France’s leadership that led to India’s membership of the Wassenaar Arrangement and support for membership of the Australia Group.

On global issues, the leaders agreed that North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and its proliferation links poses a grave threat to international peace and security. They called for the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, which has been endorsed by DPRK. Both sides stressed the need to hold accountable those who support or have supported DPRK’s nuclear and missile programmes.

The leaders also reiterated their support to the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and shared their commitment to proactively contribute towards the priorities of IORA. With the aim of broadening the canvas of such like-minded convergences, it was agreed to initiate regular expert level official dialogues on East Asia, as well as on the Middle East. An annual Policy and Planning Dialogue was also instituted between the two Foreign Ministries.