United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived here on Monday for the second round of Foreign Minister-level Strategic Dialogue with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna.
A full plate of issues, a few new and many a carry-over from several rounds of previous high-level meetings will come up for discussion on Tuesday when Ms. Clinton meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, besides Mr. Krishna.
She will also visit Chennai, where the U.S. consulate issues the highest number of visas and has become a focal point of the U.S. companies investing in India.
Ms. Clinton, who arrives from Greece, is expected to discuss closer cooperation in counter-terrorism.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had met his U.S. counterpart Janet Napolitano in May and they resolved to intensify cooperation in this area.
Ms. Clinton will touch on easing investment and foreign direct investment limits, especially in insurance, banking and retail trade. With the U.S. embroiled in financial crises, talks on this subject would seek to push initiatives, which provide greater avenues for its companies.
Mr. Mukherjee and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had held two rounds of talks, the last being in Washington last month.
On the bilateral front, U.S. administration officials have sought to allay India's disquiet over the Nuclear Suppliers Group's (NSG) decision to tighten the norms for the transfer of uranium enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies.
Russia has officially announced that this factor would not inhibit its plans to transfer ENR technologies to India and New Delhi would want a reiteration in this regard from Ms. Clinton as well.
At the same time, the U.S. has its set of concerns, especially with the Nuclear Liability Act and the absence of a bilateral civil nuclear agreement between India and Japan having hindered the entry of U.S. companies General Electric and Westinghouse (both have equity from Japanese companies).
These factors have rendered progress on the nuclear park allotted to the two companies a non-starter.
India, on its part, feels, as articulated by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao during the recent High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) meeting, that the U.S. has been slow in transferring cutting-edge technology though it had considerably pared the export control list for India.
Ms. Clinton and the Indian leadership will also discuss the situation in West Asia. Till recently, the U.S. had been nudging India to focus on East Asia but was persuaded that New Delhi too had major stakes in West Asia. The first contact on the issue was made in Washington recently.
The attempt by two countries for closer involvement with the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) will also be discussed, especially in view of the fact that Ms. Clinton will leave from Chennai on Thursday for Indonesia — venue for the Asean Post Ministerial Conference. In view of the importance of the Asean for both the countries, U.S. President Barack Obama and Dr. Singh are slated to attend the East Asia Summit in November.
In the immediate neighbourhood, India and the U.S. will exchange notes on the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan in view of the recent developments — the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and more recently, of two leaders closely aligned with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Talks will also be held on energy, climate change, education, health and trade and agriculture.
