Washington, July 16, 2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday called for a coordinated international campaign against what he described as a resurgence of far-left political terrorism, as India joined more than 60 countries at a State Department ministerial focused on the issue, according to a State Department spokesperson.
According to a State Department spokesperson, representatives from 67 countries attended the ministerial, including India, Australia, Japan, Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and several European and Latin American nations. The meeting brought together political leaders, law enforcement officials and security experts to discuss emerging trends in political violence and cross-border cooperation.
Addressing the gathering at the State Department, Rubio said governments had successfully weakened the threat posed by radical Islamist extremism over the past two decades but had failed to adequately confront political violence from the far left.
“For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot, a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,” Rubio said. “Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy.”
Rubio said the first responsibility of every government was to protect its citizens and argued that this duty should transcend political and ideological divisions.
He said international cooperation after the September 11, 2001, attacks had helped dismantle the ISIS caliphate and sharply reduce jihadist attacks in the United States and Europe.
“The threat has not disappeared, of course… but this threat has been severely diminished,” Rubio said. “The world looks very different today because of it.”
Rubio argued that governments should now adapt their counterterrorism strategies to address what he described as increasingly organised transnational networks involved in far-left political violence.
“We are facing a transnational threat,” he said. “They coordinate, they communicate, they travel, they train, and they act together, sharing the same infrastructure, sharing the same enemies, sharing the same mission.”
He said President Donald Trump’s administration had adopted National Security Presidential Memorandum Number Seven to investigate and disrupt what he described as Antifa-linked terror networks and their allies. Rubio also said the State Department had designated four violent far-left extremist groups as foreign terrorist organisations, announced financial rewards for information disrupting their funding, and launched new international law enforcement initiatives.
“Through intelligence and information sharing, through coordinated law enforcement strategy, through financial targeting and disruption, we will dismantle these networks brick by brick,” Rubio said. “It is time for the people of the civilised world to defend themselves.”
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also addressed the ministerial, calling for closer intelligence cooperation, financial enforcement and coordinated action against organisations accused of supporting political violence. Bessent said the Treasury Department would continue using sanctions and financial tools to disrupt funding networks linked to terrorist organisations.
India’s participation in the ministerial reflects the continuing importance of counterterrorism cooperation in the broader India-US strategic partnership. The two countries have steadily expanded intelligence sharing, homeland security cooperation and law enforcement engagement since the 2001 terrorist attacks, while working together through bilateral and multilateral forums to combat terrorism.
Counterterrorism has remained a central pillar of India-US ties across successive governments in both countries. Washington and New Delhi have regularly reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation against terrorism, including information sharing, capacity building and efforts to disrupt terrorist financing, even as they continue to address a range of regional and global security challenges.(Agency)
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