JOINT STATEMENT BETWEEN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA AND THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SECURITY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 11/25/2015

JOINT STATEMENT BETWEEN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA AND THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SECURITY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

At the invitation of the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China, H.E. Mr. Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of India, is on an official visit to China (Beijing and Shanghai) from 18 November to 23 November, 2015. During the visit, H.E. Mr. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of China, met H.E. Mr. Rajnath Singh. H.E. Mr. Meng Jianzhu, Member of the Political Bureau of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China met H.E. Mr. Rajnath Singh. H.E. Mr. Guo Shengkun, State Councilor and Minister of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China held talks with H.E. Mr. Rajnath Singh. The meetings were held in a warm and friendly atmosphere.

The two sides have agreed that the successful exchange of visits between H.E. Mr. Xi Jinping, President of China in September 2014 to India and H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India in May 2015 to China yielded important consensus to build a closer development partnership between the two countries, which provides the direction for the development of bilateral relations and created a favorable opportunity for the growth of India-China law enforcement cooperation. The two sides should take this opportunity to implement the important consensus reached by their leaders. The two sides will make efforts to constantly promote the mutual understanding and trust and carry out pragmatic law enforcement cooperation in order to maintain the security and stability in the region.

The two sides strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. They reiterated their strong condemnation of and resolute opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and committed themselves to cooperate on counter-terrorism.

The consensus reached by the two sides is as follows:

1. The two sides will further exchange high-level visits and establish India-China High Level Meeting Mechanism led by the Home Minister of India and the Minister of Public Security of China to be held in Beijing and Delhi once every two years. In the first half of 2016, Ministry of Public Security of China will send a Ministerial Delegation to visit India for the first meeting of this Mechanism.

2. In order to assist the Minister-level meeting mechanism, a Joint Secretary/Director General Level meeting mechanism led by the International Cooperation Departments of the two Ministries will be established. This mechanism will be held once a year, alternately in Beijing and New Delhi. The Ministry of Public Security of China will send a Director General level delegation to India and hold the first Director General-level annual meeting in 2016.

3. Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in combating international terrorism through (a) exchanging information on terrorist activities, terrorist groups and their linkages; (b) exchanging experiences on anti-hijacking, hostage situations and other terrorism related crimes; (c) coordinating positions on anti-terrorism endeavors at regional and multilateral levels and supporting each other. Both sides agree to exchanges by groups of counter-terrorism experts to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation.

4. The two sides shall strengthen the cooperation in the fields of combating terrorism, drug-related crimes, cyber crimes including telecom fraud, economic crimes, illegal immigration activities, illegal trafficking in firearms and ammunition and other transnational crimes and encourage the long-term, healthy and stable development of law enforcement cooperation between them. Therefore, the two sides may exchange visits by groups of experts in relevant fields.

5. The two sides shall strengthen the exchanges and cooperation in the area of law enforcement capacity building. They will support and encourage participation in the training courses and seminars held by each side for the officers from both sides. In this way they can learn from each other and exchange the experiences on preventing and combating crimes and coping with non-traditional threats such as terrorism to strengthen their respective law enforcement capacity.

6. To further strengthen cooperation in law enforcement, the two sides will work towards signing of an official cooperation document between the two Ministries on combating crimes as soon as possible.

7. Home Minister Rajnath Singh extended an invitation to State Councillor and Minister Guo Shengkun to visit India at a mutually convenient time. Mr. Guo Shengkun accepted the invitation with pleasure.