“America very committed to working with India to bring 26/11 perpetrators to justice”

With scarcely a month to go before Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on a high-profile visit to the United States, a senior official here said that the Obama administration was aware of India’s request for additional access to terror mastermind David Coleman Headley and that request was currently “under discussion.”

Speaking to a small media group from New York, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal added that the U.S. was “very committed to working with India to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and to advance cooperation between the U.S. and India to ensure that such an attack does not happen in the future.”

Headley, who potentially faced the death penalty here over charges that he masterminded the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in January 2013 struck a plea bargain with the U.S. Department of Justice that precluded his extradition to India or even unsupervised access for interrogation by Indian authorities on U.S. soil.

Although India’s National Investigation Agency was provided with seven days’ access to him between June 3 and 10 2010, subsequent requests to question him appear not to have been taken forward.

However in that regard Ms. Biswal underscored the deepening counterterrorism and homeland security cooperation between New Delhi and Washington during the recently-concluded Strategic Dialogue, noting in particular the extent of “post-Mumbai… intelligence sharing and technical training.”

When asked about stalled progress on the civil nuclear cooperation agreement and whether to expect any key steps forward during Mr. Modi’s visit, Ms. Biswal said: “I don’t know if there’s going to be something major by the time of the Prime Minister’s visit but clearly the biggest and most pressing issue on trying to advance the civil nuclear cooperation is on addressing the liability issue.”

Responding to a request for specifics on whether new rules and regulations may offer a way to circumvent the difficulties posed by India’s nuclear liability law, Ms. Biswal said that the U.S. did not have “any specifics on what that way forward is or what the timetable for that is,” even though there was a great deal of eagerness on both sides to resume that conversation.

“I’m not anticipating that this is necessarily something that could happen in time for the September visit, but frankly, what we’re looking for is the path forward and not necessarily something that is happening in a matter of weeks,” she added.

Finally on the U.S.’ repeated articulation of the need for more protections for intellectual property in India, Ms. Biswal said that for India to be able to attract the kind of investment and the kind of cutting-edge modern technology it needs, it “needs to address certain issues that inhibit that.”

“We are ready and stand ready to partner with India to facilitate as much collaboration as we can. We know that American companies are very eager to invest in India. We also know that American companies have some of the same concerns that Indian companies have with respect to protection of intellectual property, particularly as India becomes more and more an innovator and originator of content; that having the appropriate safeguards will allow an innovation economy to really take root and to flourish and grow,” she said.