Team Modi gears up for Kerry visit

Update: 2014-07-30 00:15 GMT
India-US ties hit a low at the end of last year after senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was arrested in New York, strip-searched and charged with visa fraud for allegedly underpaying her babysitter.

To create the right atmosphere for the talks, Kerry expressed fulsome praise for Modi’s development agenda. ‘The developmental plan of prime minister Narendra Modi reflected in his poll slogan of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ is a great vision,’ Kerry said in Washington on eve of his departure.

During his three-day visit, Kerry will co-chair the fifth India-US Strategic Dialogue on 31 July along with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on crucial issues of Strategic Cooperation; Energy and Climate Change, Education and Development; Economy, Trade and Agriculture; Science and Technology, Health and Innovation. He would also call on Modi.

Ahead of his visit here, Kerry in Washington said ‘this is a potentially transformative moment in our partnership with India, and we’re determined to deliver on the strategic and historic opportunities that we can create together’ and added that ‘The US and India can and should be indispensable partners for the 21st century.’

Kerry is also expected to visit Bengaluru and will also be joined by the US secretary of commerce, Penny Pritzker, who will be visiting Mumbai prior to participating in the strategic dialogue. The US secretary of state will be accompanied by a high-level inter-agency delegation and apart from Pritzker, the delegation includes deputy secretary of the department of Energy Daniel Poneman, under secretary of the department of Homeland Security Francis X Taylor and the US special envoy for Climate Change in the department of State Todd Stern.

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