Menon to visit Washington to prepare for strategic dialogue
By Arun Kumar, IANSTuesday, January 25, 2011
WASHINGTON - Counter-terrorism cooperation is expected to be high on the agenda of Indian National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon, in talks here this week in preparation for the next round of India-US Strategic Dialogue in April.
Menon will meet several top Obama Administration officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will lead the US delegation at the Strategic Dialogue in with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in New Delhi.
Menon will also meet his American counterpart Tom Donilon at the White House during the first high-level contact since the November visit of US President Barack Obama to India. The two would review the progress made since the visit.
The situation in the region, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, is also expected to come up.
Counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries is also expected to be one of the major topics of Menon’s discussions with US officials during his three day stay here.
“We have an ongoing counter-terrorism cooperation with India. We share a concern about the threat of terrorism, both in the region and around the world,” State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley told reporters Monday.
“I can’t point to any particular action that we’ve done in recent days, but we continue to have full cooperation between India and the United States as well as other countries,” Crowley said when asked if India had sought US help on terrorism ahead of the Republic Day.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
