New DeIhi: The first two-day counter-terrorism exercise for “Quad” countries – India, US, Japan and Australia – hosted by National Investigation Agency (NIA) began at the NIA headquarters in New Delhi on November 21.

The ‘CT-TTX’ (counter-terrorism table-top exercise) is first such engagement among the Quad countries on regional and global issues of common interest and also in the domain of counter-terrorism and cooperation, the NIA officials said.

It is being conducted as the partner countries have resolved to take the international counter-terror offensive, preparedness, mitigation and synergy to the next level and therefore the table-top exercise would be attended by CT (counter-terrorism) officials and security experts of the Quad countries, they said.

According to the NIA, the purpose of the exercise is to assess and validate CT response mechanisms in the light of emerging terrorist threats as well as to provide opportunities to share best practices and to explore areas for enhanced cooperation among participating countries.

The exercise is aimed to enable the participating countries to understand much better the response systems to terror incidents that exist in other member countries. This will help in recognition of the best practices prevalent in respective countries. The table-top exercise also aims to further improve the inter-agency cooperation between different CT and other agencies of Quad countries.

The dialogue between the Quad countries was initiated in 2007 and with renewed negotiations from 2017 onwards, the first ministerial-level dialogue among the members was held in September this year on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), according to the NIA officials.

The officials elaborated that the foundation of the Quad is based on collective effort and shared commitment on counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, maritime security cooperation, development finance, and cyber security among the four democratic nations.