Photo: V.V. Krishnan

STRENGTHENING COOPERATION: Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, United Kingdom calls on External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukerjee in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: India and the United Kingdom have discussed ways to strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation and agreed to a meeting of experts in protecting critical national infrastructure such as mass transit systems and other assets.

"There was a remarkable convergence of views on the prospects of the bilateral relationship and on critical issues like counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after talks with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett at Hyderabad House on Thursday. "We have strong cooperation on international issues, with both of us uniting on the need to face terrorism with resolve and without equivocation. Both our countries have been the victims of terrorism. We greatly appreciate the U.K.'s commitment to fight terrorism wherever it appears and the banning of terrorist groups operating against India," Mr. Mukherjee said.

Stabilising Afghanistan

Revealing that the two sides had exchanged views on developments in South Asia, he stressed that India and Britain shared the objective of stabilising Afghanistan and ensuring that terrorism was defeated in the region.

Ms. Beckett said that she had had an "excellent" meeting with Mr. Mukherjee. "We have had constructive discussions on the bilateral relationship between India and the U.K., important global challenges and opportunities, and regional and security issues, including counter-terrorism."

"I share your view that the bilateral relationship between our two countries and our two governments has never been better ... The U.K. being, cumulatively, the third largest investor in India and India until recently the third largest investor in the U.K," she said.

"And people-to-people links which see over one million ... people travelling between the two countries every year. But both Mr. Mukherjee and I agreed that we must do even more to thicken these excellent links."

"We also touched on the challenges and opportunities of climate change, especially in the context of the Sterne Report [on climate change] issued earlier this week [in Britain]. And this is an area on which we will work together. And the importance of seeing success in the Doha trade talks," she added.

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