US positive towards the security issue confronted by India: Chidambaram

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today termed his three days of intensive interaction with the top officials of the Obama Administration "very fruitful" and said the US has a very positive attitude towards the security issues being confronted by India.

"We had very fruitful discussions. I am very pleased with the level of interest shown by the officials and leaders of the US Administration as well as the very positive attitude they take to the security issues that confront India," Chidambaram told the Indian media at a press conference here.

Winding up his maiden trip to the US, Chidambaram said he discussed with the US leaders the security situation in South Asia, including Pakistan, and India's concerns about actions being taken by Pakistan regarding those involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year.

"The response has been quite positive and I hope we can take this forward in the days and months ahead," he said.

During his stay in Washington, Chidambaram met the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; the National Security Advisor, General (rtd) James Jones; the FBI Director, Robert Mueller; the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano; and the US Attorney General, Eric H Holder Jr Early.  He also met several key US lawmakers in charge of security and intelligence matters in the Congress.

"My special interest was in security related matters and I must say that am very pleased with the outcome of the discussions over the last three days," he said.

"As you are aware, Secretary Clinton and Minister S M Krishna made a joint statement recently in Delhi, in which they outlined many areas of co-operation, and the impression I got was that the US administration is willing to work very closely with India in each one of those fields," Chidambaram said.

"There is already a joint working group on counter terrorism, we have such a working group with many countries and we hope to work through that group. We did not sign an agreement. In fact it was not my intention to sign an agreement. My intention was to establish a working relationship and speed up the work what we do and deepen the engagement that we have," he said.

Both the US and India, he said, believe that they can learn from each other experiences, and share the best practices.

"I go back to India with a lot of ideas. I hope that it would be possible for me to implement some of those ideas," he said.

One of those ideas being establishing something like National Counter-Terrorism Center of the US, he said.