US offers India help in Northeast

Agartala: The United States has said that it is ready to assist India in tackling militancy in the country's Northeast.

At a press conference, Henry V Jardine, the US Consul General in Kolkata, said that Washington has offered cooperation in this regard, keeping in mind the existing strategic relationship between the two countries.

"The government of India is trying to address that and trying to deal with these groups here and to what extent the US can help, I think we would try to help.”

“We have a very close cooperation and a growing strategic relationship with India. “One of the things that we have done recently here, I think we are here for the last couple of years, we have done joint training exercise in Mizoram at the jungle war fare training center,” he said.

Jardine, who was on a two-day visit to Tripura, said that India had tackled the menace of terrorism quite well and lauded New Delhi's efforts at opening peace talks with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

Jardine, who also served as the US Consul General in Bangladesh, said both India and Bangladesh would do well to step up efforts to stop human trafficking in the region.