US positive towards the security issue confronted by India: PC

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Sep 11 (PTI) Indian Home Minister P
Chidambaram Friday termed "very fruitful" his three days of
intensive interaction with the top officials of the Obama
Administration and said the US has a very positive attitude
towards the security issues being confronted by India.

"We had very fruitful discussions. I am very pleased
with the level of interest shown by the officials and leaders
of the US Administration as well as the very positive attitude
they take to the security issues that confront India,"
Chidambaram told the Indian media at a press conference here.

Winding up his maiden trip to the US, Chidambaram said
he discussed with the US leaders the security situation in
South Asia, including Pakistan, and India's concerns about
actions being taken by Pakistan regarding those involved in
the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year.

"The response has been quite positive and I hope we can
take this forward in the days and months ahead," he said.

During his stay in Washington, Chidambaram met the
Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; the National Security
Advisor, General (rtd) James Jones; the FBI Director, Robert
Mueller; the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano;
and the US Attorney General, Eric H Holder Jr Early. He also
met several key US lawmakers in charge of security and
intelligence matters in the Congress.
"My special interest was in security related matters and
I must say that am very pleased with the outcome of the
discussions over the last three days," he said.

"As you are aware, Secretary Clinton and Minister S M
Krishna made a joint statement recently in Delhi, in which
they outlined many areas of cooperation, and the impression I
got was that the US administration is willing to work very
closely with India in each one of those fields," Chidambaram
said.

"There is already a joint working group on counter
terrorism, we have such a working group with many countries
and we hope to work through that group. We did not sign an
agreement. In fact it was not my intention to sign an
agreement. My intention was to establish a working
relationship and speed up the work what we do and deepen the
engagement that we have," he said.

Both the US and India, he said, believe that they can
learn from each other experiences, and share the best
practices.

"I go back to India with a lot of ideas. I hope that it
would be possible for me to implement some of those
ideas," he said.

One of those ideas being establishing something like
National Counter-Terrorism Center of the US, he said. PTI LKJ
ANU


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