India, U.S. Share Common Terror Threat, Clinton Says
By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer
Washington - India and the United States are committed to strengthening their counterterrorism cooperation in what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says is "a mutually cooperative and essential operational relationship" against a shared threat.
Speaking with Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna in New Delhi July 19, Clinton said counterterrorism and homeland security were emphasized at the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, held earlier in the day. The meeting occurred less than a week after three bombs killed 20 people and wounded nearly 130 in Mumbai on July 13. Clinton was making her second visit to India as secretary; she will also visit Chennai during her trip, a first for a sitting U.S. secretary of state.
Clinton expressed U.S. condolences over the Mumbai attacks and pledged support for "your fight, which is also our fight, against terrorism and violent extremism."
Both governments plan to increase their sharing of intelligence and information, as well as operational planning, investigative assistance and advanced technology. The secretary said the increased cooperation will have "a tremendously beneficial impact for both of us, because a lot of the terrorist networks that threaten you also threaten us."
"This is a mutually cooperative and essential operational relationship," Clinton said.
The secretary said India's neighbor Pakistan is a "key ally" against terrorism, but she urged Islamabad to eliminate terrorist safe havens on its territory and bring the perpetrators of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai to justice.
Both the United States and Pakistan need to mutually recognize that a safe haven for terrorists cannot be tolerated anywhere, and "when we know the location of terrorists whose intentions are clear, we need to work together in order to prevent those terrorists from taking innocent lives and threatening institutions of the state," she said.
Clinton said she is encouraged that India and Pakistan are engaged in a dialogue aimed at improving their relationship and resolving areas of conflict.
The United States wants to "encourage both sides to build more confidence between them and work to implement the kinds of steps that will demonstrate the improved atmosphere that is so necessary for us to deal with the underlying problem of terrorism," she said.
On trade, Clinton said the United States and India have made a lot of progress, with an increase of 30 percent in bilateral trade during 2010. But she said India and the United States "can take further steps to reduce barriers, open our markets and encourage new business partnerships."
Doing so will "create jobs and opportunity for millions of our people while strengthening both of our nations' economic competitiveness," she said.
India and the United States have worked intensively to strengthen their relationship since the beginning of the Obama administration and are now "building habits of cooperation and bonds of trust, and ... standing on a firm foundation," Clinton said.
"We believe that we can do even more work to ensure that this important dialogue leads to concrete and coordinated steps that will produce measurable progress for the well-being and betterment of the Indian and American people," she said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
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