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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 002072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/07/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PINR PBTS MOPS KDEM KISL PK IN
SUBJECT: G-8 SEEKING IMPROVED CT COOPERATION WITH INDIA 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Ted Osius, Reason 1.5 (B,D) 
 
 ¶1. (C) Summary:  PolCouns attended a meeting of the G-8 
Counter-Terrorism Action Group (CTAG) in New Delhi, which is 
now chaired by the German Political Counselor.  The group 
attempts to coordinate G-8 efforts to partner with the Indian 
government against terrorism.  The group discussed each 
country's individual efforts to improve India's 
counterterrorism cooperation, including the results of 
several country's Counter-Terrorism Joint Working Group 
meetings with the Ministry of External Affairs.  Participants 
overall expressed frustration with India's lack of police and 
judicial capacity as well as the bureaucratic delays that 
prevent new counter-terrorism initiatives from moving 
forward.  The group also analyzed recent terrorism 
developments in India, concluding that Naxalite violence is a 
growing, but largely overlooked, threat to the country's 
stability.  Finally, Germany gave a presentation on India's 
efforts to combat terrorism financing and money laundering. 
End Summary. 
 
Germany Takes the Lead 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) Germany held its first meeting chairing the New Delhi 
G-8 Counter-Terrorism Action Group (CTAG) on April 23rd.  The 
participants began with a short overview of each country's 
recent engagement with India on CT issues.  Germany reported 
that the last meeting of the Indo-German Joint Working Group 
on Counter-Terrorism took place in April 2006, and the next 
meeting is envisaged for the end of 2007.  German officials 
also commented that they had excellent relations with India's 
intelligence services. 
 
Italy, Spain, Japan, the EU, and Australia 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (C) The representative from Spain said that his country 
had opened its first intelligence office in New Delhi in 
September 2006, largely in response to Spain's efforts to 
increase its own counter-terrorism efforts after the Madrid 
bombings in March 2006.  The Japanese representative said his 
country had held 11 seminars with New Delhi on various topics 
related to countering terrorism, including immigration and 
export controls, to prevent terrorism finance.  The European 
Union reported that Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gijs de 
Vries visited India in October 2006, to build cooperation 
with India through both the UN and the EU, but that they were 
waiting for the appointment of a new CT Coordinator as de 
Vries has left his post.  Australia held its 
Counter-Terrorism and Immigration Joint Working Group with 
India in February 2006, largely focusing on border control 
and biometrics issues, export controls, and financial 
intelligence.  Australian officials hoped to hold a second 
round in 2007. 
 
Canada -- Focusing on Mutual Efforts 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (C) Canada held a one day workshop on informal financial 
remittance systems and terrorism on March 14, which largely 
focused on concern that Hawala channels were being used to 
finance terrorism.  The country also hosted the Canada-India 
Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism in Ottawa on March 
21 through 22, and although the working group was supposed to 
be annual, this was the first held in several years.  The 
discussions focused on India and Canada's mutual interests in 
Afghanistan, since Canada has 2,500 troops based there. 
Canada's approach to India was to discuss its legal regime on 
a one-on-one basis with India, discussing its own efforts and 
exchanging views rather than telling India how it should 
modify its own legal framework. 
 
 
NEW DELHI 00002072  002 OF 003 
 
 
France -- A Good Intel Relationship 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (S) France reported that there was good cooperation in 
substance between France and India, that its efforts with 
India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had been operating 
quite well, especially on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and 
Bangladesh.  He said there was a lot of concern about 
emerging threats in India's South.  He said France was 
particularly interested in discussions of how to stem rising 
levels of Islamic fundamentalism both in India and in Europe. 
 
United Kingdom - Facing an Overburdened Bureaucracy 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶6. (C)  The UK reported that after Prime Ministers Singh and 
Blair met in London to discuss new joint CT efforts, the two 
countries had agreed to focus on common areas of concern, 
including safeguarding mass transit systems (mainly rail 
networks) and improving security for international games. 
While London prepares to host the 2012 Olympics, New Delhi is 
working toward hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games. 
Unfortunately, UK officials were frustrated that India had 
yet to follow through on much of the promises made in the 
talks.  After much work to analyze the problem, they realized 
it had more to do with snags in the bureaucracy -- with 
overworked Indian officials sometimes taking months to move 
their requests forward.  While they believed they had reached 
to right people to resolve some of these issues, it remained 
to be seen if the cooperation would materialize. 
 
Regional Terrorism Concerns 
--------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Noting the type and level of terrorist attacks in 
recent months in India, participants said anecdotal evidence 
suggests that, in general, while terrorism in Jammu and 
Kashmir is falling, attacks in Naxalite controlled areas as 
well as in the Northeastern states were becoming a larger 
concern, especially in Assam and Manipur.  German officials 
noted that the Naxalites are merging and becoming more 
organized, and that their weapons systems were becoming more 
sophisticated.  Referring to a publication from the Indian 
Ministry of Home Affairs Annual Report for 2006-2007 (page 
143), German officials noted that there was a steady fall in 
infiltration into Indian Kashmir since 2001: 
 
      Year  Estimated Infiltration into J&K 
      ----  ------------------------------- 
 
      2001  2417 
 
      2002  504 
 
      2003  1373 
 
      2004   537 
 
      2005   597 
 
      2006   573 
 
 
Terrorism Finance Overview 
-------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C) Germany gave an overview of India's efforts to comply 
with international standards t combat terrorism financing 
and money laundering.  While currently India has observer 
status in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), India is 
trying to become a member and has a window of two years to 
adopt certain internationally mandated standards to curb 
terrorism financing and other financial crimes.  India passed 
 
NEW DELHI 00002072  003 OF 003 
 
 
the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in July 2005 and has 
issued some anti-money laundering guidelines.  In March 2006, 
the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) became operational to 
receive suspicious transaction reports from banks and work 
with the Reserve Bank of India to monitor financial criminal 
activity.  Since February 2007, there have been 1.8 million 
cash transaction reports to the FIU, with 650 suspicious 
transactions reported.  The FIU appears able to process and 
analyze these reports effectively.  Overall though, India has 
many challenges ahead, including meeting the requirements and 
making legal changes to join the FATF and the Egmont Group, 
urging its many bureaucracies to work together, and beginning 
to tackle the steady stream of hawala remittances or other 
unregulated cash flows from the Gulf. 
 
Comment:  Frustrations Remain 
----------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Comment: G-8 discussions of India's cooperation on 
terrorism continue to be dominated by expressions of 
frustration with India's famous go-it-alone outlook.  Several 
countries, such as Canada, France, and the UK, have focused 
their programs on reciprocal or parallel problems at a 
bilateral level, hoping that this will bypass Indian 
concerns.  Nearly all, however, note that India's efforts may 
be hampered more by a lack of bureaucratic capacity than an 
issue of political will.  The creation of a new 
counter-terrorism cell in the MEA will ameliorate, but not 
resolve this systemic problem.  End Comment. 
PYATT