America
US, India strategic dialogue to set stage for Modi visit
By
By Arun Kumar Washington, Sep 20
India and the US begin
their first strategic and commercial dialogue here from Monday to set
the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third summit meeting with
President Barack Obama within a year a week later.
The two
leaders had decided to expand the existing Strategic Dialogue to the
Strategic and Commercial Dialogue during President Barack Obama's
January visit to India to reflect the growing significance of the
US-India economic relationship.
Modi himself lands in New York
Wednesday a day after Indian and US teams led by External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj and Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman Secretary of State John Kerry and Commerce Secretary of Penny
Pritzker wrap up the dialogue.
He will be meeting Obama the
following Monday in New York after wooing investors in New York and a
weekend trip to the Silicon Valley focusing on three key themes of
entrepreneurship and innovation, digital economy and renewable energy.
The
Sep 28 summit would thus be capping eight days of intense India-US
engagement on both political and commercial planes starting with an
energy dialogue Monday led by Power Minister Piyush Goyal and US Energy
Secretary Ernie Moniz.
Between the US-India dialogue and the Modi summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping will be visiting the White House on Sep 24 -25.
This
is "a sequence that will not be lost on Chinese policy makers," wrote
Raymond E. Vickery, Jr. a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in
an article in "Diplomat".
"The Obama administration is pulling
out all the stops," , he suggested, to make the US engagement with India
"a success and a key demonstration that the administration's 'rebalance
to Asia' is more than just rhetoric."
As the US commerce
department noted since 2010, the US-India Strategic Dialogue has been
the primary forum to advance shared objectives in regional security,
economic cooperation, defence trade and climate challenges.
"With a new commercial track, the US and India will focus additional
attention
on shared priorities of generating economic growth, creating jobs,
improving the investment climate, and strengthening the middle class in
both countries," it said.
Later on Monday evening, US Vice President Joe Biden, Kerry and Sushma Swaraj will headline a conclave of corporate America.
Other
high-ranking government officials as also captains of industry from
both countries, will also address the US-India Business Council's 40th
Annual Leadership Summit.
To increase the role of the private
sector, the Commerce Department will host the US-India CEO Forum on Sep
21, in close proximity to the Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.
The
CEO Forum is the primary mechanism for engaging the US and Indian
private sectors and leveraging business leaders' recommendations to
shape policy making discussions.
As part of the CEO Forum, the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will host an event featuring
remarks from Pritzker and Sitharaman, and a discussion between US and
Indian CEOs on efforts to deepen bilateral economic engagement.
Other
engagements on the sidelines of the strategic and commercial dialogue
include official level India-US Health Dialogue and a meeting of
India-US Joint Working Group on Climate Change.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])