US terms India as one of its best counterterrorism partners

Washington, Oct 30 (PTI) Ahead of the visit of US
President Barack Obama to India next week, the White House has
identified New Delhi as one of its best counterterrorism
partners.
"The Indian government is one of our best CT (counter
terrorism) partners," said John Brennan, Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism.
Brennan, who was responding to reporters' questions at
a hurriedly convened press conference after the latest round
of terror plot was unearthed, said the US has been sharing
information with Indian government on a regular basis.
"We share on a regular basis with the Indian
government," Brennan said.
In fact counterterrorism cooperation between India and
the US would be on top of Obama's agenda during his India
visit and in his talks with Indian leaders, another top White
House official had said early this week.
"We want to underscore the closeness of our
counterterrorism cooperation and the resilience of India in
the face of terrorism, just as the US has experienced it," Ben
Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser, told a group of
Indian reporters earlier this week.
"We share an interest in counterterrorism. We share an
interest in a stable Afghanistan that doesn’t provide safe
haven for terrorist groups," Rhodes said.
"We see India as a constructive partner in those
efforts and we want to make sure that India is a part of our
dialogue about the future of the region. And so this comes at
a good time to continue those discussions," he said.
Anish Goel, Senior Director, South Asia, at the
National Security Council said the (David Coleman) Headley
case has underscored the fact that how far Indo-US
counterterrorism cooperation has come in the past couple of
years.
"The fact that we are -- have more initiatives going
with them than we ever have before. And that we gave access to
Headley I think sort of demonstrates how we kind of view this
issue basically in the same perspective as the Indian
government," he said.
Rhodes said after US authorities arrested Headley -–
key suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks on 26 November in
2008 -- they learned a lot about 26/11.
"Not only did we share that information, but I think
it's a signal of the strength of our counterterrorism
cooperation that we actually provided access to Headley for
the Indian security services so they were able to ask him
questions directly, which continue to flesh out the
understanding of what took place on 26/11," he said.