NEW DELHI – India and the US are expected to firm up the list of terrorfugitives and exchange names of individuals for the global entry programme(GEP) during the visit of officials from the US Department of HomelandSecurity on July 18, officials have confirmed. While the Homeland SecurityPresidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6) enables sharing of terror-relatedinformation, GEP exempts prominent citizens from immigration checks, IndianExpress has reported.

During the visit next week, the Union Home Ministry will also take up thecooperation agreement between Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers(FLETC) of the US and the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D)of India on law enforcement training, added an official.ADVERTISEMENT

The dialogue is being held ahead of the twice-deferred 2+ 2 meeting betweenthe foreign and defence ministers of India and the US. The 2+2 dialogue,which may see finalisation of the Communications, Compatibility andSecurity Agreement (COMCASA), is likely to be held in September this yearin Delhi, said another official. Also Read: *India’s first ‘2+2’ dialoguewith US to take place in September: Nirmala Sitharaman*link>

The 2+2 talks were deferred first on April 18 and then on July 6. Officialsfamiliar with the India-US meet said that New Delhi plans to finalise thenames of nearly 1,000 prominent Indians to be included in GEP by Octoberthis year — the list will be expanded later. On the basis of HSPD-6agreement, India will seek access to “unclassified biographic informationof known and suspected terrorists” maintained by the US.

There have been several rounds of discussions between the interlocutors ofthe two countries in the past two years and both sides have narrowed downtheir differences on several key issues on sharing of data on militants.The US has already finalised such agreements with 30 countries.