FS RAO ON COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION, PAKISTAN,

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 000063

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2020
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PARM KNNP ENRG KTIP PK IN
SUBJECT: FS RAO ON COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION, PAKISTAN,
CIVIL NUCLEAR COOPERATION, TIP

REF: STATE 1619

Classified By: Ambassador Timothy Roemer for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (SBU) This is an action request. See paragraph 5.


2. (S) SUMMARY. Foreign Secretary Rao, at the request of
Home Minister Chidambaram, summoned Ambassador Roemer January
13 to seek permission for National Investigative Agency (NIA)
officials to travel to the United States to interview two
known associates of David Headley. Chidambaram appears to
have deliberately moved this issue from intelligence and law
enforcement channels to political channels.


3. (C) SUMMARY CONTINUED. FS Rao and Ambassador Roemer also
discussed India's relations with Pakistan, civil nuclear
cooperation, trafficking in persons (TIP),and defense
foundational agreements. Rao said External Affairs Minister
Krishna had phoned Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi January
13 to convey new year's greetings; both sides adhered to
familiar positions on dialogue and action against terrorism.
Ambassador Roemer used the meeting as an opportunity to press
Rao for action on the few remaining impediments to civil
nuclear cooperation, including a new concern that the
liability legislation may not fully conform with
international standards (reftel). Noting Rao's commitment to
cooperate on trafficking in persons that she expressed during
Secretary Clinton's meeting with Prime Minister Singh in
November, Ambassador Roemer asked Rao to welcome the visit to
India of Ambassador CDeBaca in February. In the context of a
discussion of upcoming visits to India, including that of
Secretary of Defense Gates, Rao dismissed public
"apprehensions" about moving forward on defense foundational
agreements, suggesting that the government wanted to move
forward on the agreements. END SUMMARY.

Headley Case
- - -


4. (S) At the Home Minister Chidambaram's request, Foreign
Secretary Rao summoned Ambassador Roemer January 13 to
request permission for officials from the National
Investigative Agency (NIA) to travel to the United States to
interview Headley's legal wife Shazia Gilani, who lives in
Chicago, and his Moroccan girlfriend Fazia Outalha, whose
whereabouts were not clear. NIA wants to probe both womens'
roles as abettors and co-conspirators in the Mumbai attacks.
Rao alleged that Gilani apparently had knowledge of Headley's
terrorist activities and sent him a coded message on November
26, 2008 (the date of the Mumbai attacks),congratulating him
on "graduation day," adding that she was watching it unfold
on television. Rao had little to share about Outalha, but
noted that the NIA has her email address.


5. (S) COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST: Chidambaram appears to
have directed Rao to request the meeting in order to move
this issue from intelligence and law enforcement channels to
political chanels, which speaks both to the importance
Chidambaram places on the on-going Headley investigation as
well as his stature within the government. Post requests
urgent cleared guidance on how to respond.

Pakistan
- - -


6. (C) Rao noted that External Affairs Minister (EAM) Krishna
called FM Qureshi on January 13 to convey new year's
greetings and to ask for a progress report on the trial of
the accused Mumbai conspirators. Qureshi said the government
of Pakistan was doing its best to move forward and asked for
resumption of the Composite Dialogue. Rao said the Indian

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government wanted dialogue but that dialogue would be
meaningless without progress against terrorism. Ambassador
Roemer encouraged dialogue and asked when the next Indo-Pak
interaction would take place. Rao reported that the
Pakistani election commissioner would come to Delhi in late
January. She noted that India and Pakistan had each released
fishermen who had been detained near the border, adding that
more would soon be freed. She also noted that the Indian
government had recently invited the speaker of the Pakistani
Parliament to attend a commonwealth meeting. Rao noted
acerbically that the Speaker "found time to meet with
Kashmiri separatists and to speak of jihad and a 1000 year
war for Kashmir," which she described as typical Pakistani
behavior. She concluded that while Pakistan says it wants
peace and to normalize relations, it continues to push its
agenda on -- not to seek resolution of -- the Kashmir issue.
Rao pointedly reaffirmed that India wanted to handle its
problems with Pakistan bilaterally. She described recent
track II efforts as helpful, but not officially linked to the
Indian government.

Civil Nuclear Cooperation
- - -


7. (C) Ambassador Roemer seized the opportunity to press Rao
on outstanding civil nuclear cooperation issues. On
reprocessing and Part 810 assurances, he stressed the urgent
need for responses to our proposals. Rao said the Part 810
response was forthcoming, but that she had no knowledge of
the reprocessing state of play and suggested both sides
needed to be flexible.


8. (C) On liability legislation, Ambassador Roemer stressed
deep disappointment that the government had failed to meet
its pledge to adopt legislation in 2009. Rao claimed it was
due to bureaucratic hang-ups and unspecified "questions from
certain quarters," and that the draft text needed to clear
the Ministries of Law and Finance, as well as the Presidency,
before being tabled in the next session of Parliament. She
pledged to call these ministries to encourage them to
expedite its clearance. Ambassador Roemer also cited
concerns that draft legislation may not meet the standards of
the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear
Damage (CSC) and thereby fail to meet India's commitment in
the 2008 Letter of Intent (reftel),to which Rao offered no
substantive response.

Trafficking in Persons (TIP)
- - -


9. (C) Ambassador Roemer raised the proposed visit to India
of Ambassador CDeBaca in February and stressed the importance
of engaging on this issue; he also noted Rao's commitment to
cooperate with us on the issue that she expressed during
Secretary Clinton's meeting with Prime Minister Singgh in
November. Rao said that while the Indian government was as
opposed to trafficking as was the United States, it remained
sensitive to anything perceived as too intrusive. She said
MEA would be in touch with us further, but offered no firm
answer with regard to the visit.

Strategic Dialogue Ministerial, FS Visit to U.S.
- - -


10. (SBU) With regard to a possible ministerial-level meeting
of the Strategic Dialogue in Washington, Rao shared that
External Affairs Minister Krishna would not be available to
travel to Washington until after the Parliament budgetary
session ended on May 12. Joint Secretary Gaitri Kumar later
clarified that Krishna was already set to travel to Central
Asia April 9-12 and to Europe April 20-24, so it would be

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difficult for him to travel to the United States prior to
mid-May. Rao noted she would like to visit Washington in the
Spring prior to EAM Krishna's visit, and may stop in New York
for speaking engagements at the Council on Foreign Relations
or the Asia Society.

Defense Framework Agreements
- - -


11. (C) In response to Ambassador Roemer's suggestion that
Secretary of Defense Gates would likely raise the possibility
of making progress on the defense foundational agreements,
Rao noted that agreements like the Logistics Support
Agreement (LSA) should not be controversial since Indian
Naval vessels engaged in anti-piracy patrols already rely on
the U.S. for refueling. Rao observed that the public debate
needs to be better informed. Rao dismissed an interjection
from Joint Secretary for the Americas Gaitri Kumar about
political "apprehensions," saying that such concerns are a
hold-over from the "prior" era in which the Communist party
constrained foreign policy. She said the Indian government
shared the U.S. perspective and that the only issue now was
how to educate naysayers. Ambassador Roemer suggested that
we package the various agreements so the Indian government
did not need to repeatedly make the case to Parliament.


ROEMER