India-US ties on the right track: Roemer

New Delhi, Jul 1: As he bid farewell, US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer on Thursday said relations between the two countries were moving in a postive direction and described pat down searches and criminal charges against Indian diplomats as an "occasional hiccup or challenge".

"(There are) really the positive stories going forward that define the relationship, and I hope the media will, quite frankly, concentrate on those good news stories as well as the occasional hiccup or challenge that takes place in the relationship," Roemer told reporters here.

He was replying to queries about the incidents of pat down searches and imposition of criminal charges against Indian diplomats in the US.

Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar and a few other diplomats were subjected in the recent past, to pat-down searches at the US airports over which India had registered its protest.

Criminal charges were also imposed on Kritika Biswas, daughter of an Indian diplomat only to be dropped later while Indian Consul General in New York Prabhu Dayal has been slapped with forced labour charges by his former house keeper.

Roemer said these were important issues and the US was working on them.

"When Secretary Janet Napolitano was here, she said that we were working to improve how when you have a Minister, you have very important people visit the United States...that is a smooth process, that that takes place without incident," he said.

Roemer said the two countries were "coordinating more and more the travel itineraries so that those experiences do not take place in the future."

PTI