This was stated by newly-appointed CIA chief Leon Panetta who is on a familiarisation visit of South Asia. During his two-day stay in New Delhi, Panetta met Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan, External Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief KC Verma and Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director Rajiv Mathur before flying to Pakistan.
Though both sides were officially tight-lipped about deliberations, sources said Indian officials urged the CIA chief to share real-time India-centric information gathered in Afghanistan and Pakistan with New Delhi.
They said that the American official called for closer cooperation with India to fight terrorism. Panetta will be reaching Islamabad tomorrow (Saturday) to discuss with Pakistani leadership important security issues including drone attacks in the Tribal Areas.
“The cooperation in the war on terror, intelligence sharing, drone attacks, the situation in Afghanistan and the Tribal Areas, investigation into the Mumbai attacks, the peace deal in Swat and the country’s overall security situation will come under discussion during the CIA chief’s visit,” the sources said. staff report