Kolkata:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today at the Writers' Building in Kolkata.
(Read: A scarf, Tagore's Gitanjali among Mamata's gifts for Hillary) Ms Clinton arrived in Kolkata on Sunday as part of her three-day visit to India - the last stop of her tri-nation South Asia tour that included trips to Beijing and Dhaka.
In the meeting today, the US Secretary of State is expected to explore investment and trade opportunities in West Bengal and discuss the issue of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail with Ms Banerjee. Her strong reservations over multi-brand retail make Ms Banerjee the biggest roadblock for US plans to invest in the Indian market.
The two women are also expected to talk about the Teesta water treaty following Ms Clinton's meeting on Saturday with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The Teesta water-sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh had to be shelved during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka last September following reservations by Ms Banerjee who felt Bangladesh was getting a better deal than Bengal on water sharing.
Unprecedented security has been made at the West Bengal state secretariat, where ministers and employees will have to enter through a side gate with special passes on Monday. The media, except cameramen, will be barred from the premises. The FBI inspected the whole building at least three times with the Kolkata Police with special attention being paid to stairs and corridors through which the American entourage will pass for a meeting with Ms Banerjee.
(Read: Kolkata fortified for Hillary's visit)A series of high-level meetings took place through the weekend with the iconic building also getting a last minute paint job thanks to this visit.
On Sunday afternoon, Mrs Clinton attended a cultural programme organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and meeting some human rights NGOs. Later in the day, she visited Kolkata's most famous landmark, the Victoria Memorial, where an exhibition of paintings by Gaganendranath Tagore was be on display. Mrs Clinton is spending the night at Taj Bengal where, sources say, she was served
with kebabs, Mediterranean, European, Pan-Asian, Chinese and Italian food.
Later today, Mrs Clinton will head to Delhi. Civil nuclear cooperation, regional security and Iran are among the key issues that she is expected to discuss with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna during their meeting on Tuesday.
During her stay in the national capital, she is also expected to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during which they will also review progress made in their countries' strategic partnership ahead of the India-US strategic dialogue to be held in Washington on June 13.
Both sides will discuss civil nuclear cooperation and regional security situation with New Delhi expected to brief the US Secretary of State on its proposed regional investors' meet to discuss economic development of Afghanistan, reports PTI.
Mrs Clinton's first stop in her tri-nation South Asia tour was Beijing where she arrived on Friday. It was perceived to be a tense visit to China with a fragile deal in hand over a top dissident, Chen Guangcheng. After a turbulent week in ties between the Pacific powers, the United States said on Friday that China would move soon to allow blind rights campaigner to go to the United States with his family to study.
"It is a testament to how far we've come in building a strong and resilient relationship and being able to have very candid, open discussions about issues where there is disagreement without it endangering the entire range of significant matters that we are working on together," Mrs Clinton said on Friday.
But Mrs Clinton, who faced criticism at the start of her term over comments on cooperation with China, vowed that human rights would be "at the heart of our diplomacy."
On Saturday, Dhaka was her next stop. Mrs Clinton met with both Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her arch-nemesis, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, and urged the leaders to put aside their differences for the good of the impoverished country.
The top US diplomat also raised concerns about recent disappearances of activists blamed on security forces, amid a new period of political tensions in Bangladesh.