Epicenter of global terrorism in India's neighbourhood:Krishna

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jun 3 (PTI) Without naming Pakistan, India
Thursday said the "epicenter" of global terrorism is in its
neighbourhood and asked the US to make sure that no particular
extremist group is left out in the fight against terrorism.
In his opening remarks at the first-ever Indo-US
Strategic Dailogue, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said
the global nature of the security challenges that the world
faces today, particularly the threat posed by transnational
terrorism, requires India and the US to cooperate more closely
than ever before.
"Though the epicentre of this threat lies in India's
neighbourhood, it reaches far and wide all across the world as
we have seen time and again and most recently a few weeks back
in Times Square," Krishna said.
"Given the fact that the groups who preach the
ideology of hatred and violence are increasingly coalescing,
sharing resources and operating as one, it is incumbent upon
all of us, to focus our efforts laser-like on every one of
them," he said.
Targeting only one or other of such groups would only
provide false comfort in the short term and will not usher in
long term stability, Krishna said in an apparent reference to
Pakistan's reluctance of Pakistan to take strong action
against Lashkar-e-Taiba.
He noted the significant improvement in counter-
terrorism co-operation between the US and India post-Mumbai.
"I am happy to note the tremendous progress that we
have made in strengthening our counter-terrorism cooperation
particularly since the Mumbai terror attack," he said.
"We value the support we have received from the US
Government in our investigations. In this regard, access for
our authorities to persons who have been apprehended by your
Government in connection with Mumbai terror attack is the
logical next step," he said referring to India's demand for
access to 26/11 plotter David Headley.
"We are confident that our continued cooperation will
lead to realisation of this objective," Krishna said.
The External Affairs Minister also said that
conclusion of the negotiations on arrangements and procedures
for reprocessing has taken the two countries closer to
realizing their objective of commencing commercial
collaboration in nuclear energy with US companies.
"Another key area of our bilateral dialogue is
cooperation in high technology. I am glad that we are working
together to pave the way for liberalising export control
restrictions that apply to India.
"Given the strategic nature of our partnership and
particularly the conclusion of the Civil Nuclear Initiative,
these control are not only anomalous but also a hindrance to
furthering trade and investment in this particularly
significant sector of our economies. We look forward to early
steps in this direction," he said. PTI LKJ
KAB


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