Obama visit: India, US look forward to boost ties

India and the US are set to boost bilateral ties in cyber security and counter-terrorism during President Barack Obama’s visit this month, as the two countries prepare to put in place a mechanism for exchanging terrorist watch lists, officials told HT on Tuesday.

India and the US are set to boost bilateral ties in cyber security and counter-terrorism during President Barack Obama’s visit this month, as the two countries prepare to put in place a mechanism for exchanging terrorist watch lists, officials told HT on Tuesday.

Obama, who will be in India as the Republic Day chief guest, will hold a summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where both countries are looking at signing agreements in a host of areas. Indian officials said the two countries are already on way to finalising protocols to be followed in the exchange of terrorist watch lists that has become an effective counter-terrorism measure for the US government.

Both countries will also look to shore up existing counter-terrorism cooperation in international forums like the United Nations and Global Counter-terrorism Forum. Another focus area is strengthening live-time sharing of information and data.

“The two countries have robust cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism, homeland security measures, capacity building, addressing threat of counterfeit currency and law enforcement collaboration. Both countries see this as an area for greater cooperation,” an official said.

Both countries are also looking at cyber security cooperation as an area where government, industry and the international community can come together to prevent using the internet as a tool for terrorist activities.

Sources said counter-terrorism was one of the issues Modi and Obama discussed in their last meeting in Washington in September.