He was speaking at a conference cum reception organized by the American Jewish Committee to discuss public policy concerns of the Indian American and Jewish American communities on the margins of the Republican Convention in New York.

Highlighting the centuries-old ties between Jews and India and the defence cooperation which was aggressively promoted by the previous government in India, he said "there has been some speculation that after the change of government there might be a change of policies--change in direction.

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"It is not so, because the ties --we have such deep foundations and they are based on shared values, common concerns.

"We are not going to shift our policy, because they are not based on transient considerations but on long-term shared interests, common values and common aspirations," he told the audience which included several Jewish leaders, including several delegates to the Convention and US lawmakers.

"Israel is emerging as a very, very major partner in defense cooperation and this could not be possible unless both countries have a long-term perspective--a long-term strategic perspective--which they share, which is manifested in this defense cooperation.

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"It is no accident also--and we are talking of (countering) terrorism--it is no accident that the first country after the United States, with which Israel established institutional mechanisms for consultation and cooperation in counter-terrorism, was India."

Sen also questioned Washington's policy vis-à-vis Pakistan, and referred to Washington's willingness to overlook nuclear proliferation by the father of Pakistan's nuclear program A Q Khan as well as cross border terrorism into India.

"I would prefer not to go into details, except to say only one thing, we know that it was governmental people(in Pakistan), not individual efforts," behind the nuclear technology transfers to Iran and North Korea, he said.

"It was fully coordinated--the man who was leading (Khan)--who has been isolated as a sort of individual buccaneer, was leading government delegations with the full knowledge of the government and certainly with the knowledge of certain army chiefs."

Pakistan "is the only country in the world, which has a military finger directly penetrated, into the nuclear weapons program." In other places, "like India and Israel, we have democratic checks and balances. But I don't want to go into details because more details tend to create more problems," he said.

"The basic thing we are saying is, All right, we understand expediency--we are not even talking about double-standards, because it has been applied all the time--but all we are saying is, while you make tactical moves, don't let tactical moves sabotage and subvert your long-term strategies and goals. That's all we are saying.

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"So I would not like to go into details on this, except to say that it is not now, but if you have chronicled evidence of let's say, terrorist camps run by an army in neighboring state openly. You have eye witness accounts of how before they (the terrorists) enter the place, they have to ceremoniously wipe their feet on three flags--US, India, and Israel," he said.

"This is not something that is happening today. People know it. It has been chronicled, it has been published, but it has been ignored."