Puducherry, July 13: French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont today said fight against terrorism is one of the major areas of cooperation between the two countries. “Fight against terrorism is one of the main subjects of our political cooperation with India,” he told reporters here.
France had worked with India and all members of the UN at 12 international conventions to check terrorism. “The work during the last 10 years had completely changed the international legal landscape in this respect.
Now, nobody in the world can pretend that terrorism can be justified for any political reason,” he said. Bonnafont said the French presence in Afghanistan has started after the 9/11 attack to eradicate terrorism from that country.
“The reason why French armed forces are still in Afghanistan is that Afghan government and international community have agreed that our presence is useful and necessary for establishing peace, stability and for economic development in the region,” he said. He said after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, France was among the first countries to condemn the terror strike.
“France had also said that justice had to be made as such attacks are unacceptable”. Bonnafont said that those who carried out the attacks should be brought to justice at any cost.
On the decision for the closure of UNDP regional office in Colombo, he said “we have said that it is important that the UN is able to operate freely in Sri Lanka as per its mandate.
” He said “serene dialogue between Sri Lanka and the UN is important so that things can settle as quickly as possible”.
-PTI