ISLAMABAD – The 7th Meeting of the Pakistan-Russia Joint Working Group onCounter Terrorism was held here on Wednesday at the Ministry of ForeignAffairs.

The officials from both sides reaffirmed the commitment for enhancingbilateral cooperation for countering terrorism and agreed to cooperate atthe United Nations and other international fora for eliminating terrorism,said a press released issued from foreign office on Wednesday.

“There was broad agreement on the fact that terrorism was a common globalthreat which required cooperative efforts of the international communityfor effectively eradicating it,” the statement said.

The Pakistani officials briefed the Russian delegation about the majorsuccesses the country had achieved in eliminating the terrorism throughkinetic actions as well as implementation of the major anti-terrorismstrategy known as National Action Plan on counter-terrorism, the statementsaid, adding the plan had resulted in significant improvement of Pakistan’ssecurity situation.

While acknowledging country’s unmatched sacrifices, the Russian delegationhighly appreciated Pakistan’s contribution to the global fight againstterrorism.

Both sides expressed grave concern over the rising threat posed by Da’esh.While major successes had been achieved in the fight against Da’esh inSyria and Iraq, the returning fighters from the conflict zones to countriesof origin or third countries constituted a major security threat to variousparts of the world, including this region. It was important for countriesof the region to cooperate to counter this threat.

The Pakistani side was led by Foreign Ministry Counter-Terrorism DirectorGeneral Ahmad Farooq, while the Russian side was led by Director of theDepartment for New Challenges of the Russian Foreign Ministry IlyaRogachev. Both delegations included officials from relevant departmentsdealing with counter-terrorism.

During the meeting , It was agreed that the next meeting of the JWG wouldbe held in Moscow in 2019.