The July 13 bomb blasts in Mumbai figured very high in the India-U.S. strategic dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday between visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterpart External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. Mr. Krishna mentioned the terror attack, in which 19 people have been killed, in his opening remarks at the delegation-level talks and said India appreciated the solidarity shown by her and the U.S. government.
The dialogue is aimed at providing an opportunity to take stock of the progress in bilateral relations and cooperation and to hold consultations on global and regional issues of interest, besides charting out a short to medium-term road map of cooperation in priority sectors for the two governments.
Coming less than a week after the Mumbai blasts, discussions on security challenges in the region are expected to be high on the agenda with the U.S. asserting that they are “committed to this important relationship with India with regard to cooperation in counter-terrorism and security concerns and we will be as responsive as we can be.”
Ms. Clinton, who is accompanied by 25-member delegation including top security officials in the U.S. administration, will travel to Chennai on Wednesday.
Ahead of the delegation-level talks, Mr. Krishna and Ms. Clinton had a restricted meeting for nearly an hour.
While Mr. Krishna is accompanied by Deputy-Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister and other senior officials, Ms. Clinton’s delegation includes Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Assistant to President on Science and Technology John Holdren.
Before the strategic dialogue, Ms. Clinton had a breakfast meeting with National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon.
On her part, Ms. Clinton assured full U.S. support to New Delhi’s efforts to protect itself from terror attacks.
“Before I go further, however, I want to express our sympathy and outrage over the terrorist attack in Mumbai last week. The U.S. condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims.
“And we pledge our support to the Indian government, however we can in protecting its cities and citizens from future harm. We are allies in the fight against violent extremist networks. And homeland security is a high priority and a source of increasing partnership,” she said while noting that these were the reasons why the two countries signed the Counter terrorism Cooperative Initiative.
Observing that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano came to New Delhi to launch the first-ever U.S.-India Homeland Security Dialogue, to bring order and urgency to our shared efforts, Ms. Clinton said, “The events in Mumbai have driven home how important it is that we get results“.
Asserting that the “stakes are high”, she said, “So it is critical that this dialogue leads to concrete and coordinated steps that each of our governments take to produce real results that make a difference in our people’s lives.”
