US, India join hands to counter terrorism

US, India join hands to counter terrorism
Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 19: New Delhi's unrelenting effort to draw world and American attention to terrorism has yielded some results with India and US formally agreeing to establish a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism. The new body will hold its first meeting in Washington in early February, it was announced in a joint statement issued at the conclusion Wednesday of the tenth round of talks between the two sides in London. The two sides have also "agreed to work together to ensure that the perpetrators of the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 were brought to justice, as part of their joint efforts to combat international terrorism," the statement said.

Significantly, moving away from the rather unidimensional focus on non-proliferation, India and US have resolved to try and institutionalise their exchanges. "Mindful of the goal of crafting a multifaceted partnership, they also discussed the possibility of institutionalising their dialogue," the typically cryptic joint statement said.Institutionalising the dialogue would result in regular top level meeting between the two sides.

The statement touched on President Clinton's proposed visit to the region saying "the two sides also discussed arrangements to plan in detail for the proposed visit to India by President Clinton." The indication here is that the administration has formally proposed dates late March. Some South Asia mavens say only half in jest that the window for the visit would coincide with Chelsea Clinton's spring school break.

But the London round of talks are most notable for the shifting of emphasis from non-proliferation to terrorism. There was already some indications about this with the inclusion of the US Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Micheal Sheehan in Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott's team (and the addition of New Delhi's Pakistan and Afghanistan expert Vivek Katju in the Indian delegation).

Meanwhile both Sheehan and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth left for Islamabad at theconclusion of the London talks.

Administration sources also told The Indian Express that Washington had dispatched two FBI agents to New Delhi in the wake of the hijack episode. The agents arrived in Delhi even as the situation was resolved, but they stayed behind to exchange notes and look at the evidence India produced to back up its claim that Pakistan was involved, the sources said. This was acknowledged and corroborated by Indian sources. "There has never been a dearth of support and sympathy from the administration on the hijack episode even if their public pronouncements did not meet the public expectations in India," an Indian official said.

It was following this cooperation that Washington has said it would help India follow the hijack case to its logical conclusion i.e bring the perpetrators to book.

Meanwhile, there is still no firm indication as to whether the President will visit to Pakistan too during his trip to the region. Administration heavyweights are weighing the options andsay it is difficult call to make. US officials reason that that if Washington were to be entirely sympathetic to India's case against Pakistan, put Islamabad in the doghouse, and excluded it from a Presidential visit, it could end up pushing the country into an even more fundamentalist orbit. New Delhi's argument is that Pakistan is precisely using this threat - of going even more fundamentalist and bust - to prevent Washington from acting against it. Indications here are that Washington is searching for some saving grace from Pakistan that can enable a brief Presidential visit. Even if that happens the visit will be heavily weighed towards India, and Washington's latest darling, Bangladesh.

Pak staffer expelled
New Delhi: It was India's turn today to expel a staffer of the Pakistan High Commission here for spying. Pakistan's deputy high commissioner to India, Akbar Zeb was unusually summoned twice to the Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday: the first time to protest the expulsion of PMoses, a staffer in the Indian mission in Islamabad, and the second time to declare that a Pakistani staffer in the mission in Delhi had been ``indulging in activities incompatible with his status.''