Indo-Us Strategic Dialogue
CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
PIB, July 28,2010
In pursuance of the understanding reached between External Affairs Minister and US Secretary of State and as reflected in the Joint Statement in July 2010, the inaugural India-US Strategic Dialogue took place in Washington DC on June 3, 2010.
The Strategic Dialogue, led by External Affairs Minister and the US Secretary of State is the sum total of the meetings and events held over the period June 2 – 4, 2010, geared towards strategic planning and determining the next steps for India-US collaboration across the various sectors of bilateral co-operation identified under the 18 India US Dialogues under the groupings, namely: (i) Strategic cooperation,(ii)Energy and Climate change, (iii)Education and Development, (iv) Economics, trade and agriculture and (v)Science, technology, health and innovation; while leveraging the strong foundation of economic and social linkages between the people, private sectors and institutions in both countries.
The Plenary Session on June 3, 2010 was led by External Affairs Minister, Shri S.M. Krishna and US Secretary of State Ms. Hillary Clinton. The Government of India delegation included Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development (HRM), Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Foreign Secretary, Secretary Environment, Secretary Department of Bio-technology and Special Secretary Ministry of Home. On the US side, participants included Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Deputy NSA Michael Froman, US AID Administration, Rajiv Shah, Science Advisor to the US President Holdren, Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Ponemon, NASA Administrator Bolden and Under Secretary for Global Affairs Maria Otero.
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, MoS (S&T) and HRM met individually and collectively with their respective counterparts to pursue the India-US bilateral dialogues which their Ministries co-chair – the Economic Dialogue, the Energy Dialogue, the Agriculture Dialogue, the Science & Technology dialogue and the Education Dialogue.
Similarly, Foreign Secretary met the US Under Secretary, Bureau of Industry, Security on Export Controls and they discussed, inter alia, the ongoing review of US export control policy. Foreign Secretary and the US Under Secretary for Political Affairs held discussions on regional issues and global issues including Food Security, Energy Security and reviewed other ongoing India US dialogues including those relating to cooperation in defence, education, energy, and science & technology. Secretary Environment, Special Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs and Secretary DBT, similarly, met their counterparts to pursue the agenda of the India-US Climate Change dialogue, the India-US dialogue on cooperation in countering terrorism and the joint implementation of the India-US MoU on cooperation in the field of Energy and Climate Change signed in November 2009, respectively.
The Strategic Dialogue of June 2-4, 2010 gave a strategic direction to the 18 ongoing bilateral Dialogue components – with the aim of strengthening and building on the economic, political and technological linkages that they advance between India and the USA, and taking the bilateral co-operation in all identified areas to the next level for the mutual benefit of India and the USA while complementing India and US development, security and economic interests. A number of short term targets were set – to be achieved in the individual areas of our cooperation – which are presently under implementation. This information was given by Shri S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. __________YSK/PM