'Progress made on finalising def pacts during Obama-Modi meet'

The meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi resulted in progress on finalising some key defence agreements between India and the US, the White House said today.
"I can tell you that there was important progress on finalising agreements relating to defence logistics, sharing of maritime information, and even the movement of US aircraft carriers in the region," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.
The news conference took place as Obama and Modi had a working lunch at the Cabinet Room of the White House.
Earnest said the question about coordinating India US activities when it comes to national security and counterterrorism was an important part of the agenda.

"The President was certainly interested in looking for ways that the United States could deepen our coordination with India," he said.
The United States, under the leadership of President Obama, has placed a renewed focus on its strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, he said, adding that the finalisation of agreements on key defense related issues was important in this regard.

"We welcome that improved cooperation and coordination, and we believe it will have a material and positive impact on the national security of the United States in India. The two leaders agreed to have their staffs continue to work on efforts to deepen that cooperation even further," Earnest said.

The United States, he said, has sought to extend and deepen its relationship when it comes to India's work in diversifying its sources of energy.
And that includes building nuclear power plants by Westinghouse.
According to the statement, the two leaders committed to
enhance cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building and cybersecurity research and development and to continue discussions on all aspects of trade in technology and related services, including market access.
In an apparent reference to the countries which are indulging in large scale cyber hacking, the statement said no country should conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use of it to provide services to the public.

No country should conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national computer security incident response teams from responding to cyber incidents, or use its own teams to enable online activity that is intended to do harm, the statement said.
The two leaders insisted that every country should cooperate, consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other states in mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory.
No country should conduct or knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to its companies or commercial sectors, the statement said.