By Rohan Gunaratna

The 3rd Quad Counter Terrorism Working Group (CTWG) meeting between India, Japan, Australia, and the United States was held in New Delhi on 04-05 December 2025.

Quad member countries discussed the full spectrum of counterterrorism cooperation, collaboration and partnership. They underscored the importance of ensuring an open Indo-Pacific, free from the threats of terrorism.

The working group meeting held in New Delhi on 04-05 December 2025 was as a part of India’s rotation hosting the next Quad Summit. The Quad CTWG was established during the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in New Delhi in March 2023.

India, Japan, Australia, and the United States unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism and expressed their condolences for the Red Fort terror incident.

During the meeting, the Quad member countries exchanged assessments on the terrorism threat landscape, including developments in the Indo-Pacific region. The members also underscored the importance of ensuring that the Indo-Pacific remains open and free from the threats of terrorism. They also reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation in multilateral forums.

During the meeting, emphasis was laid on the value of continued information sharing on terrorists, terrorist organisations, and their proxies. Delivering the keynote address, Secretary West, Ministry of External Affairs, Sibi George stressed the need for forging a common resolve within the Quad to combat the scourge of terrorism. The Secretary also urged all Quad members to take necessary steps to make the Quad CTWG a more resilient, robust, and action-oriented working group.

The meeting was led by the Joint Secretary for Counter Terrorism, Ministry of External Affairs, including ambassadors from member countries. A tabletop exercise on counterterrorism operations in the urban environment was conducted at the meeting.

India and the US called for additional proscription by the United Nations (UN) of individuals linked to terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad, ISIS and al-Qaeda, after the two countries held their 21st meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter Terrorism.

“Both sides emphasized that confronting terrorism requires concerted action in a sustained and comprehensive manner. Against this backdrop, the two sides renewed their commitment to strengthening multilateral cooperation in the field of countering terrorism including in the UN, Quad and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),” read the joint statement issued after the JWG.

It added: “The two sides called for additional designations of ISIS and al-Qa’ida affiliates, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and their proxy groups, supporters, sponsors, financiers and backers, under the UN 1267 sanctions regime, ensuring their members face a global asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo.”

The Quad leaders did not meet under India’s rotational chairmanship in 2025 after the deterioration of ties between New Delhi and Washington. Australia has been pushing for the Quad Leaders’ Summit to be held in the first half of 2026.

The following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, the Republic of India, the State of Japan, and the Commonwealth of Australia on the occasion of The 3rd Quad Counterterrorism Working Group (CTWG) meeting.

The 3rd Quad Counterterrorism Working Group (CTWG) meeting between India, Japan, Australia, and the United States of America was held in New Delhi on 04-05 December 2025, as a part of India’s rotation hosting the next Quad Summit.  The Quad CTWG was established during the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in New Delhi in March 2023. 

Ambassador Sibi George, Secretary (West), delivered the keynote address, underscoring the need for forging a common resolve within the Quad to combat the scourge of terrorism, and urged all Quad members to take the necessary steps to make the Quad CTWG a more resilient, robust, and action-oriented Working Group.  He thanked Quad member countries for showing solidarity and extending support to India following the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack.

The meeting was led by senior officials in charge of counterterrorism.  Dr. Vinod Bahade, Joint Secretary for Counter Terrorism, Ministry of External Affairs of India; Ms. Gemma Huggins, Ambassador for Counter Terrorism, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia; Mr. Minami Hiroyuki, Ambassador in-charge of International Cooperation for Countering Terrorism and International Organized Crime of Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Ms. Monica Jacobsen, Senior Bureau Official for the United States Department of State Counterterrorism Bureau, led their respective delegations. 

Quad partners unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism.  They also expressed their condolences for the heinous terror attack on 10 November 2025 near the Red Fort in Delhi.  They called for the perpetrators, organizers, and financiers of this reprehensible act to be brought to justice and urged all UN Member States to cooperate in doing so. 

During the meeting, the Quad member countries exchanged assessments on the terrorism threat landscape, including developments in the Indo-Pacific region.  They discussed the full spectrum of counterterrorism cooperation and measures that could be used to address the existing and emerging challenges.  They underscored the importance of ensuring that the Indo-Pacific remains open and free from the threats of terrorism.

During the meeting, a Tabletop Exercise (TTx) on “Counter Terrorism Operations in the Urban Environment” was conducted.  The TTx provided an opportunity for CT experts to share their best practices and identify potential opportunities for joint operational preparedness to respond to complex terrorist scenarios. 

Quad partners reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation in multilateral fora.  They also emphasized the value of continued information sharing on terrorists, terrorist organizations, and their proxies. 

In September 2025, India hosted two Quad CTWG workshops on countering the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for terrorist purposes and on preventing terrorist exploitation of new and emerging technologies for terror financing.  These workshops were organized by the National Security Guard and the National Investigation Agency respectively in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

Quad partners committed to further deepening counterterrorism cooperation within the Quad framework and to convene the next meeting of the Quad Counter Terrorism Working Group in 2026.

To mitigate the extant and emerging threat, it is imperative to shift from counter terrorism cooperation to collaboration and partnership.

Governments and partners in the region should build common databases, exchange personnel, conduct joint training and operations, share expertise, resources, technology and experience. In addition to strengthening the kinetic and lethal capabilities, these governments should work within the religious, educational, and information domains. To counter the vicious radical ideologies radicalizing young people, the religious institutions should work with the educational establishments to train, retrain and certify the religious clerics to promote moderation, toleration and coexistence.