Hillary discusses Teesta, FDI retail with Mamata

Hour-long meet marks first visit ever by a US secretary of state to Writers' Buildings

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held nearly an hour-long meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today and are understood to have discussed various issues ranging from the Teesta water treaty to FDI in retail.

This was the first-ever visit by a US secretary of state to Writers' Buildings to hold a meeting with a chief minister. No official briefing on what transpired during the meeting has been held so far.

Clinton arrived with a large US delegation for the meeting with the chief minister who was waiting in the lounge in front of her office to greet her and after an exchange of pleasantries, shook hands and posed for a photo session.

The chief minister then took Clinton to a large portrait of Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary falls tomorrow.

The meeting between Clinton and Banerjee, both listed among the 100 top influential people in world by Time magazine, took place at the conference room from 11:05 am to 11:57 am, 12 minutes more than scheduled time.

Also present were US Ambassador Nancy Powell, US Assistant Secretary Robery Blake and US Consul General Dean Thompson.

Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh, Home Secretary Basudev Banerjee, besides Finance Minister Amit Mitra and Secretary to the Chief Minister Gautam Sanyal participated in the meeting.