Clinton, Krishna to chart out future plans

India and the United States would not only review the progress made in the ties since the November visit of President Barack Obama, but also chart out a course for future development during their second round of strategic dialogue in New Delhi next week.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna would be spending considerable amount of time on the developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan besides a broad spectrum of issues, diplomatic sources said. Clinton will visit India on July 19 and 20 for the strategic dialogue.

"At the forthcoming strategic dialogue, we also hope to have new initiatives in the field of civil aviation, and in the area of cyber-security," said a senior Indian diplomat here.

"Besides bilateral issues, there would be discussions on regional issues including the situation in our neighborhood, developments in the Asia-Pacific and in the wider Middle East," the official said, adding that the two

countries are working to have the India-US higher education summit in Washington in October this year.

The India-US Strategic dialogue, the first meeting of which was held in Washington last year, provides an opportunity to review the entire spectrum of the bilateral relations.

It is based on five pillars -- strategic cooperation that includes defence cooperation and counter-terrorism cooperation; energy and climate; economics, trade and agriculture; science, technology, health and innovation; and education, development and empowerment, the official said.

At the upcoming talks, the two co-chairs will review the considerable progress the two countries have made in the ties since the historic visit of Obama last year and also chart out a course for future development, said the official, who has been engaged in the preparations of the talks.

Since the Obama visit in November, the official pointed out, there has been an intense high-level engagement. "During this year we have had visits to India by US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke; Senate Minority leader Senator Mitch McConnell; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano," the official said.

From India there were visits of the National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.