MANILA : The 9th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crimes (SOMTC)

MANILA : The 9th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crimes (SOMTC) was held in a virtual mode on 20 July 2022. The Consultation was co-chaired by Shri Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism), Ministry of External Affairs, from the Indian side, and Mr. Puah Kok Keong, Deputy Secretary (Policy), Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore, from the ASEAN side.

Both sides strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and emphasized the need to strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism and transnational crimes in a comprehensive and sustained manner.

During the Consultation, both sides discussed ways to enhance cooperation interalia, in the areas of terrorism, illicit drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, international economic crime and cyber crime under the framework of ASEAN-India Work Plan to combat Transnational Crimes. Institutional linkages and capacity building programmes between the two sides were also discussed.

The 10th ASEAN-India SOMTC Consultation on Transnational Crimes will be held in 2023 in Indonesia.