India and US embark on high-level commercial dialogue
23 Sept 2015 6:41 AM IST
US Secretary of State John Kerry and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj highlighted the priority areas in bilateral ties as they inaugurated the Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.
Swaraj said India and US are on a path of increased cooperation. “This is a very busy time for India and US relations. <g data-gr-id="34">Its</g> important that we set timelines to achieve our targets,” she said thanking Kerry for very fruitful discussions between the two countries ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US.
Kerry said India and the US together can shape up more secure and prosperous future. He said the US was not satisfied with the current level of bilateral trade at $ 100 billion and expressed confidence that it could be increased five-fold in the next few years.
Kerry said that Prime Minister Modi will meet President Obama next week. “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,” Swaraj said.
“The emerging context of the Indo-US political, strategic and <g data-gr-id="36">security,</g> 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.
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 <g data-gr-id="39">optimize</g> 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 <g data-gr-id="37">domains</g> though, creativity and shaper focus would ensure that we meet mutually agreed objectives and targets,” 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,” she added.
<g data-gr-id="56">US</g> presses India to speed up economic reforms
The US on Tuesday asked India to speed up the pace of economic reforms, with special emphasis on ease of doing business, as American Vice President Joe Biden underlined the need to do more to protect intellectual property and liberalise trade with shared rules of the road. Biden, who described the first Strategic and Commercial Dialogue as beginning of a “new era” in the Indo-US ties, also sought greater co-operation on the issue of climate change which, he argued, would unleash a new era of economic growth in the two largest democracies of the world. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are representing India at the first India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. “The rules of the road have to be universally followed. So we need to see more reforms to protect intellectual property,” Biden said.
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