Washington, Jan 26
Recognising the importance of their deepening economic and commercial ties, India and the US have decided to expand their annual strategic dialogue into a US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, according to US officials.

The expanded dialogue would now be jointly led from the US side by Secretary of State John Kerry and US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker instead of only the former, Pritzker told US reporters accompanying President Barack Obama Monday.

\"Our relationship with India has been a central component of America\'s rebalance to Asia,\" she said noting both Indian Prime Minister Narendra \"Modi and Obama recognise the importance of deepening the economic and commercial ties\".

The expansion of the strategic dialogue \"to mark this moment of renewed partnership\", Pritzker said \"establishes a framework that will strengthen our relationship and create new avenues of cooperation between our governments, our businesses and our peoples\".

\"The new commercial element of our most important bilateral dialogue will focus on our shared priorities of growing our economies, creating good jobs, and strengthening our middle class,\" she said.

The dialogue, Pritzker said, would be used \"to ensure that the United States and Indian businesses -- small, medium and large -- are in a position to capitalise on abundant opportunities that exist in both of our countries\".

It would also be used to promote more trade and investment between the two nations and to identify new opportunities for economic and commercial cooperation that will improve the lives of people in both countries, she said.

\"And we\'ll continue to use this dialogue to address the many strategic and political challenges that the US and India must face together in the years ahead,\" Pritzker said.

Modi and Obama, \"share the view that enhancing our commercial ties is critical to making our long-term vision of a comprehensive US-India partnership a reality\", she said. \"And that work begins today.\"

The US had also put together the \"Infrastructure Collaboration Platform\" by which American companies will get early awareness of projects India plans to undertake in developing 21st century infrastructure.

At the behest of Modi, US had also signed MoUs for three smart cities that will allow planning to begin to outline the specific opportunities in each of these cities, she said.

\"All of these are indicative of a new day in the commercial relationship between India and the United States,\" Pritzker said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

India, US to add commercial ties to strategic dialogue