Terrorism to top India-US Homeland Security dialogue's agenda

NEW DELHI: Threat of terrorism, illicit financing and transnational crimes will be top on the agenda of the three-day India-US Homeland Security dialogue to be held in Washington from May 20-22.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will hold talks with his American counterpart Janet Napolitano on challenges like cyber security, counterfeit currency, illicit financing and cooperation between the two nations to tackle the crimes.

Shinde will lead a delegation of over a dozen senior officials, including Home Secretary R K Singh and Home Secretary-designate Anil Goswami, official sources said.

Both sides are expected to take stock of the existing mechanisms such as the Joint Working Group on Counter- terrorism and the Counter-terrorism Cooperation Initiative in advancing India-US cooperation.

Shinde and Napolitano will also discuss how to further strengthen agency-to-agency engagement, including in the areas of intelligence exchange, information sharing, forensics and investigation, access and sharing of data relating to terrorism, security of infrastructure, transportation and trade, conducting joint needs assessments besides others.

The two leaders are expected to share ideas and experiences on the ongoing transformation of their countries' security-related organisational structures and systems as well as regulatory framework in a democratic and federal environment, the sources said.