India, US ready to take relationship to 'new level': Menon

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 12 (PTI) India and the US are ready to
take their relationship rapidly to a "new level", India's
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said Thursday after the
first high-level contact with the Obama Administration which
ended on a positive note.

Seeing the potential for further transforming the
relations, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President
Barack Obama are expected to have their maiden meeting on the
fringes of the G-20 meeting in London next month.

New Delhi and Washington are also discussing the
likelihood of a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to
India "in the near future", Menon told reporters, wrapping up
his four-day visit to the US.

The Foreign Secretary, who met Clinton and other
senior officials of the new US administration, discussed
progress in the probe into the Mumbai attacks, counter-
terrorism, situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
besides reviewing Indo-US bilateral ties.

Menon said during his talks he was "reassured" by the
US its determination to go through with the Indo-US nuclear
deal, signed during the previous Bush administration.

The Mumbai attacks figured prominently during the
parleys with Clinton and National Security Advisor Gen James
Jones.

Replying to queries on Mumbai attacks, Menon said
Pakistan needs to do "much more" to bring to book perpetrators
of the Mumbai carnage and asked Islamabad to take "credible
steps" to dismantle terror infrastructure in its territory.

He said India will give more material to Pakistan on
the 2611 attacks as asked by it.

"From our point of view there are two clear goals that
we work to and hope that our friends would work to as well,"
Menon said.

One is bringing the perpetrators to justice and
secondly India would like to see credible action by Islamabad
to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan, he
said.

On the situation in war-torn Afghanistan, Menon said
there was need for an integrated approach to bring in peace
and stability to the country.

About the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka, the Foreign
Secretary said devolution of powers to Tamil-dominated areas
in northern Sri Lanka is "really the way" to address the
problem.

He also said both India and the US have similar
approaches to address the issue.

Menon also said India and the US feel that civilians
caught in the war should be safely moved to
Government-controlled areas.

On his talks with US diplomats and officials, Menon
said, "I think, we both (India and the US) are satisfied that
we have achieved so much in this relationship. But we both
want to do much more. That's why are taking it to a new
level."

During his four-day stay in Washington, Menon had as
many as 15 meetings with the top officials of the Obama
Administration and Jones.

The purpose of his trip to US, Menon said was twofold.
One was to take stock of the bilateral relationship with the
new administration and to see how this could be taken forward.

"We also spent quite some time in these meetings
discussing the situation in our region and the future of
them," he said.

"In the meeting with the Secretary of State, we both
reaffirmed the India-US partnership at the global level and
she mentioned to me her desire to visit India soon," Menon
said.

Referring to the meetings he had here, the Foreign
Secretary said: "In all the meetings with the administration,
and in Congress, I found a very strong sense of satisfaction
of the growth and the transformation of the Indo-US relations
in the last few years and a very strong support for carrying
these relations forward and building on the successes that we
have achieved." PTI LKJ
RAI