India and the US on Tuesday announced they will re-establish the Homeland Security Dialogue focused on issues such as cybersecurity, emerging technology, and violent extremism.
The announcement was made after a discussion between US secretary for homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas and Indian ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
The two officials “agreed to re-establish the US-India Homeland Security Dialogue and to discuss important issues such as cybersecurity, emerging technology and addressing violent extremism”, the department of homeland security said in a readout of their discussion.
The first round of the re-started dialogue is expected to take place later in the year, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The two countries had welcomed efforts to “reinvigorate” the dialogue -- between the US Department of Homeland Security and the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs -- at the 2+2 dialogue of the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries held in New Delhi last October.
An initiative of the Obama administration, the first India-US Homeland Security Dialogue was held in May 2011. The then secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, travelled to India to take part in the dialogue with her then Indian counterpart home minister P Chidambaram. The second India-US Homeland Security Dialogue was held in Washington DC in 2013 between Napolitano and the then home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
Though working groups set up as part of the dialogue continued to engage on several areas of mutual concern and issues, the dialogue at the ministerial level were not scheduled after 2013. Meetings at the ministerial level were also not held during the administration of President Donald Trump, from 2017 to January 2021. The people cited above said it wasn’t for lack of interest.
{{/usCountry}}Though working groups set up as part of the dialogue continued to engage on several areas of mutual concern and issues, the dialogue at the ministerial level were not scheduled after 2013. Meetings at the ministerial level were also not held during the administration of President Donald Trump, from 2017 to January 2021. The people cited above said it wasn’t for lack of interest.
{{/usCountry}}Mayorkas and Sandhu also discussed “the positive engagement “ that has already taken place between the two countries since President Joe Biden took office, including the first summit-level meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, that comprises the US, India, Japan and Australia.
Increased cooperation among the four countries on emerging technology was one of the key outcomes of the Quad Summit, held virtually on March 12. The initiative is to be spearheaded by the Quad Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group, one of the three working groups announced by the four leaders (the two others are focused on Covid-19 vaccine distribution and climate crisis).
Mayorkas and Sandhu also took stock of other areas of interest such as “the important contributions of students and entrepreneurs that have made both countries stronger”.
Richard Rossow, the India chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said, “The Homeland Security Dialogue is quite important. The United States and India both have shared concerns about terrorism. And some of the terror groups are the same. Having open lines of communications and rapport between our leading officials can ensure better coordination, keeping citizens from both nations safer.
“Some emerging areas of concern require regular consultations. For example, both nations are being regularly targeted with cyber-attacks. Sharing information on sources of these attacks, the tactics, and potential countermeasures will be very helpful.”