India not immune to IS threat: UAE Minister

There are no grey areas. We need to tackle this threat: Anwar Mohammed Gargash

"There are no grey areas. We need to tackle this [IS] threat and nobody is immune. If you think you are immune [and] you are going to be negligent, you are going to be hit. Everybody.... whether India or the UAE,” says Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affair

Warning that India is not immune to the threat from the Islamic State (IS), the United Arab Emirates, which has deported about a dozen Indians with suspected links to the terror group, said on Monday that its anti-terror cooperation with India is going to get “more institutionalised“.

“There are no grey areas. We need to tackle this [IS] threat and nobody is immune. If you think you are immune [and] you are going to be negligent, you are going to be hit. Everybody.... whether India or the UAE,” Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said here.

Strengthening ties with India

Ahead of the UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s three-day State visit to India starting on Wednesday, Dr. Gargash told NDTV in an interview that strengthening bilateral cooperation against terrorism would be an important component of the royal visit.

Bilateral cooperation on terror was “working very well” and in the coming 12 months “it will be more institutionalised and work even better,” he said in the backdrop of the Gulf nation having deported to India a dozen Indians with suspected links to the IS in recent months.

“Vital part of Modi’s visit”

Such cooperation was an important part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s discussions with the UAE leadership during his visit here in August, Dr. Gargash said.

Underlining the threat posed by the IS, the Minister said: “No country was immune, no city is immune..... We need greater cooperation and zero tolerance for any sort of extremism, terrorism in order to confront this threat.”