rediff.com: India, US to intensify anti-terrorism co-operation

The US has pledged the full support of G-8 nations to an Indian proposal for a UN convention on terrorism and agreed with New Delhi to take its co-operation against it to a higher plane.

At a meeting between Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh and US Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering at the state department on Friday, the US also shared India's concerns about the growth of narcotics traffic "in our neighbourhood, especially in Afghanistan," Mansingh said.

The talks, which combined a third round of regular Indo-US consultations at the foreign secretary level with the agenda for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Washington, also included discussions on the possibilities of renewing the Fulbright agreement.

Referring to Vajpayee's visit, Mansingh said his schedule will be expanded in Washington to enable those he was to have met on the west coast to interact with him but, in New York, "we will have to provide some period of rest after the hectic programme" before his visit to Washington.

The foreign secretary also ruled out any meeting between Vajpayee and Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in New York, adding there was also no role for Islamabad in the discussions on Kashmir between "our authorities and our people in Kashmir. We have given our assessment to the Americans of the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir."

On the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, he said India's stance that a consensus has to evolve on the issue remains the same, adding on both the CTBT and the fissile material cutoff treaty issues, the gap between India and the US had been narrowed but not yet bridged.

The subject of US sanctions against India was, however, not brought up at the two-day talks, Mansingh said, pointing out that the Americans "very well know our opposition to sanctions. We consider them to be counterproductive and ineffective but we have not appealed to them to remove them."

Despite the sanctions, he said, there was extensive co-operation between India and the US especially in the field of science and technology.

"We want a resumption of the dialogue between the scientists" of the two countries, he said, adding "I don't think the sanctions will inhibit co-operation between scientists on projects concerning science and technology."

Among other issues, it was agreed to hold a meeting between the Indian commerce minister and the US commerce secretary during Vajpayee's visit.

"We also expect that a number of power projects in the private sector will be discussed. We expect some of these projects will be ripe for closure in the near future," he added.


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