India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has called for broader cooperation to counter the misuse of information technology by extremists and criminals, and to crack down on terrorism funding.

Speaking at the XII International Meeting of High-Level Security Officials in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, Dhoval said India wants to work with other countries build an open, stable, secure and reliable framework for information security. He stressed that such cooperation needs to happen at the domestic and international levels.

Dhoval jointed delegates from over 100 nations at the annual gathering, hosted by the Russian Security Council since 2010. The meeting involves secretaries of security councils, national security advisers, deputy prime ministers, heads of security forces and intelligence agencies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, addressing the conference, said that this year’s event would prioritize “issues of protecting the information space from external and internal threats.”

“This topic is relevant for all countries, extremely significant for ensuring national security, social stability, and economic development,” Putin said. “We firmly believe that the global community needs to systematically and consistently establish unified, legally binding norms and principles of conduct for states in the information sphere.”

Opening the plenary session, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev pledged that Russia will continue to advocate for the creation of a “just world order” that meets the interests of the majority of countries, based on the principles of equality and respect for cultural and civilizational diversity.

This year’s meeting was held just weeks after a devastating terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, in which over 140 people were killed. Russian investigators earlier linked the attack with Ukrainian nationalists. Kiev, which initially claimed that Moscow itself had staged the massacre, has denied any involvement, while its Western partners maintain that it was carried out by ISIS-K, an Afghanistan-based offshoot of the once-powerful international terrorist organization Islamic State. The group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

During the two-day conference, Dhoval has also held a series of bilateral meetings, including with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev and his Myanmar counterpart Admiral Moe Aung, as well as the chief advisor to the President of Brazil, Celso Amorim, according to the Indian Embassy in Moscow.

Doval also addressed the BRICS national security advisors’ meeting, where he called for closer cooperation against terrorism, and concrete actions to prevent cross-border planning, funding and execution of terrorist acts.

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