New Delhi
12 August 2009
United States Ambassador Timothy John Roemer, in his maiden interaction with
Indian media, said here that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials from the US
testified in the 26/11 trial in Mumbai on Wednesday.
"We will continue to seek justice for those killed and injured in Mumbai ... we want to
work with India and enhance our cooperation to achieve these results," he said a day
after presenting his credentials to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.
Roemer said Washington was committed to broadening and deepening counter-terrorism
cooperation with New Delhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram was invited to the US for
discussions on how the two countries could cooperate.
The envoy said the US intended to announce some of the most tangible results of its
strategic partnership with India when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travels to
Washington in November.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited here last month, handed over US
President Barack Obama's letter to Prime Minister Singh, inviting him for a State visit to
Washington on November 24.
A new strategic dialogue announced at the end of Clinton's visit here covered strategic
cooperation; energy and climate change; education and development; economics, trade
and agriculture; and science, technology, health and innovation.
To a question whether Washington believed there was enough evidence against Jamaat-
ud-Dawa founder Hafiz Saeed, Roemer said, "We want to bring blood-thirsty perpetrators
of Mumbai attacks to justice, wherever they are."
India considers Saeed as the mastermind of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
"We are committed to shutting down terrorist networks around the world and shutting
down financing of those networks. We want to work with India and enhance our
cooperation to achieve these results," Roemer elaborated.
He described the American position on terrorism as "firm, resolute and bold" and that the
US stood firmly with India on the issue. He also said the US was pressing Pakistan hard
for bringing the 26/11 perpetrators to justice.
Roemer recalled 19th century American author Mark Twain who said "India is the mother
of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition."
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