India, US Hold High-Level Strategic and Commercial Dialogue

Washington: India and the US today held their first strategic and commercial dialogue with an aim to ramp up economic exchange to $500 billion and enhance regional security, days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with President Barack Obama in New York.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj highlighted the priority areas in bilateral ties as they inaugurated the India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.

Ms Swaraj said India and US are on a path of increased cooperation.

"This is a very busy time for India and US relations. Its important that we set timelines to achieve our targets," she said, thanking Mr Kerry for very fruitful discussions between the two countries ahead of Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US.

Secretary of State Kerry said President Obama is very much looking forward to a meeting with Prime Minister Modi at the UN General Assembly meetings in New York next week.

"And then we have a very robust discussion regarding counter-terrorism, the Indian Ocean, maritime security, South China Sea, the South Asian challenges of the moment, as well as our challenges on a global basis for nuclear non-proliferation and climate change," Mr Kerry said.

"So it's a full agenda with one of our most important partners in the world, the largest democracy in the world. Together we're the oldest and one of great common values and common commitment to the freedom of our people, to individual creativity and respect for human rights, and entrepreneurial activity. And I think we have plans to advance our relationship to a $500 billion goal of economic exchange,"
he said.

Mr Kerry said India and the US together can shape up more secure and prosperous future.

Ms Swaraj said, "the impressive intensity, scale and level of achievements in our bilateral engagement since last year, is a testimony to the leadership, direct supervision and the tremendous importance attached to the bilateral relationship by our leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President Obama."

"The emerging context of the Indo-US political, strategic and security, and economic ties continues to be constantly shaped by international geo-politics, the strength of the Indian economy amidst global economic uncertainties and the need for partnership among democracies to respond to some of the global challenges like terrorism," she said.

The first India-US Strategic Dialogue, announced during the India visit of Mr Obama in January this year, is being hosted by Mr Kerry along with Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker at the Department of State.

Ms Swaraj arrived yesterday to lead the Indian delegation for the dialogue which also includes Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Power Minister Piyush Goyal.

The External Affairs Minister said until now this dialogue was between the two foreign ministers and it was called Strategic Dialogue. For the first time it has been elevated to Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, she highlighted.

"I'm very hopeful that the meeting will be very productive and very meaningful. We are going to talk on a wide range of issues as Secretary Kerry elaborated," Ms Swaraj said.

Ms Swaraj said the narrative and specifics of substantive cooperative agenda were shaped by increasing convergences of strategic interests and mutual concerns, including in the Indian Ocean Region and the Asia-Pacific.

"A strong intent to tailor the relationship to harness political synergies and optimise economic complementarities, bilaterally, regionally and globally, permeates India's approach to its ties with the US," the minister said.  

Defence and security cooperation, strategic political engagement including in the field of civil nuclear cooperation, science and technology, health, space, energy, trade and investment are some of the domains where the two nations have sustained intense delivery oriented engagement, she said.

"In some other domains though, creativity and sharper focus would ensure that we meet mutually agreed objectives and targets," Ms Swaraj said.

"This dialogue provides us the opportunity to assess where we stand in terms of the goals that we had set for ourselves and set targets and objectives for the future. It is also important that we give ourselves timelines to achieve the targets. We should also be in a position to present to our leaders a clear vision of the road ahead," she added.

"We firmly believe that an economically prosperous India offers a long term opportunity to the US industry and capital," she said.

Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said, "Given the headwinds in the global economy, neither of us can afford this under-performance any longer. We must take action to address the impediments to growth faced by our businesses and our economies. And we can only succeed by working together."

In a blunt message to the US, Commerce Minister Sitharaman called for a much better American responses to areas of India's concerns including totalisation.

She said there is need to "change our mindset" to achieve the ambitious goal increasing the bilateral trade to $500 billion between the two countries. She also stressed on an open and responsive approach to each other's concerns.

Mr Goyal and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moiniz also gave a read out of the India US Energy Dialogue held in Wahsington yesterday.

Joining the Strategic and Commercial Dialogue were the two co-chairs of the India US CEOs Forum - Cyrus Mistry from Tata Group and Dave Cote from Honeywell.

The two CEOs gave details of their deliberations in the US capital and the progress on their set of recommendations given to the two countries in January this year.

Among others present on the occasion were Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma.