US to set up counter-terrorism centre in India

ISLAMABAD: The United States will set up a counter-terrorism training centre in India as part of an agreement on homeland security to be signed in New Delhi tomorrow (Tuesday). It will be first such centre in the region being established by the US.

According to reports details of such counter-terrorism training are being kept under wraps. The development is taking place despite Trump owes Pakistan for putting its weight behind a pact between Taliban and the US, by bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table these past several months, which will enable Trump to fulfil his campaign promise and exit from Afghanistan.

An unnamed US senior administration official said a day earlier that with Modi, “President Trump will talk about our shared tradition of democracy and religious freedom… he will raise these issues, particularly the religious freedom issue, which is extremely important to this administration.” The State Department may talk about Kashmir to India, but privately.

India has helped improve the atmosphere by buying expensive US defence equipment, an official said that under Modi, India has bought equipment worth $9 billion, and is expected to sign on the dotted line for another $6 billion when Trump comes to town.

What is significant is that Indian and US defence systems and platforms are now so closely integrated that the final of the four foundational agreements, the basic exchange and cooperation agreement (BECA), which allows for geospatial cooperation, is likely to be signed between the two sides in March.

“Tech denial is a legacy of the Cold War, which was reaffirmed by sanctions after the 1998 nuclear tests. It has taken 22 years, but the last vestiges of tech denial seem to have now been removed,” the Indian official said.

As for the much-publicised failure of the trade agreement, both sides concede that “much more conversation is needed” over data localisation and the differing views in the US and Indian establishments on the matter.

The Indian official admitted that negotiations broke down with the US not willing to bring RuPay on a par with Mastercard & Visa.

“The Modi government’s big promise is to promote inclusive banking. We simply cannot differentiate between RuPay and any foreign cards,” the Indian official said.