Strategic engagement to continue with Indo-US dialogue platform: Pritzker

Pritzker said the Commerce Department has taken the lead on elevating US' ties with India

The Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue that was launched two years ago by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama will endure as a platform for bilateral engagement on a host of issues, outgoing US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said on Thursday. 

In an exit-memo on eight years of the Obama Administration, Pritzker said the Commerce Department has taken the lead on elevating America's commercial ties with India through the creation of the US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.

"This mechanism will endure as a platform for commercial and strategic engagement on a wide range of issues," she said.

"We have made great progress in key areas affecting our economic relationship, including ease of doing business, smart cities and infrastructure development, innovation and entrepreneurship, and standards harmonisation," Pritzker wrote in the memo released by the White House.

The first India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue was held in Washington DC on September 22, 2015, and the second one in New Delhi last summer.

The third and the first one under the Trump Administration is expected to be held later this summer.