India, US to strengthen defence ties

new delhi: in a major step forward in bilateral indo-us relations, india and the us have decided to intensify cooperation in counter terrorism, expand defence ties and economic dialogue. as part of high-level exchanges, the bush administration is inviting home minister l.k. advani to washington as soon as he can for discussions on enhanced cooperation against terrorism, us ambassador to india robert blackwill, who was in the american delegation for the talks between president george w.bush and prime minister atal bihari vajpayee, said over telephone from boston. as part of intensified defence cooperation, us undersecretary of defence for policy douglas feith will be arriving here in the first week of december. his mandate is to give further substance to this cooperation, blackwill said, adding he would be discussing a variety of subjects, including defence sales to india, peacekeeping cooperation and joint submarine rescue. vajpayee and bush, who met for the first time "really struck it up", he said, adding there was "good rapport" between the two leaders who got to know each other and termed their interaction as "very positive". he said that the two major areas of discussion were indo-us ties, war in afghanistan and the campaign against terrorism. the prime minister's visit had given a further momentum towards transforming indo-us ties, blackwill said. during extensive discussions on afghanistan, the us president made it clear that he wanted india to be a "major player" in the international consultations regarding the future dispensation in kabul after the ouster of the taliban regime, the american envoy said. in this context, the state department coordinator for afghanistan richard haass will be visiting new delhi early next month. the newly-appointed american envoy to afghanistan james dobbins will also be here soon on a visit, he said. the two sides will have intensified consultations on the us missile defence plan under bush's new strategic framework dialogue. the issues to be deliberated upon include weapons of mass destruction, missile defence and counter proliferation and non-proliferation. the two countries have decided to intensify cooperation on export controls relating to sensitive technologies, he said.