US has a rich strategic dialogue with India

I / Washington March 18, 2010, 10:50 IST

A day after Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor James Jones, the United States has said it has a rich strategic dialogue with India.

"We have a very rich, strategic dialogue with India," State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman, Mark Toner, said.

Without going into specific details of the meeting, Toner said: "I can certainly imagine that they did talk about dialogue between Pakistan and India, and better cooperation."

In a statement on Tuesday, Indian Embassy had said Rao had briefed the top Obama Administration officials about her recent talks with her Pakistani counterpart and conveyed the United States New Delhi's view point on Afghanistan.

"Foreign Secretary briefed the US side about her talks with the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan last month. She exchanged views on recent developments related to Afghanistan and stressed that Afghanistan presented the foremost security related challenge in the region," the Embassy had said.

She reiterated India's long held position that it was important for the international community to stay the present course in Afghanistan for as long as it is necessary.

"The US interlocutors conveyed their appreciation of the important developmental work being done by India in Afghanistan," it said.

Rao met Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Robert Hormats and Under Secretary of State for Democracy Global Affairs, Maria Otero.

The Foreign Secretary also met Congressman Gary Ackerman and Senator Joseph Lieberman.

External Affairs Minister, S M Krishna is expected to visit Washington soon for the first round of Strategic Dialogue with Clinton.

During Clinton's visit to India in July last, both nations instituted a strategic dialogue.

"The bilateral meetings of the Foreign Secretary with US interlocutors provided an opportunity to review the progress on various pillars of India-US Strategic Dialogue agenda including cooperation in defense, nuclear energy, counter-terrorism, agriculture, education, energy, space, cyber-security etc," the Indian Embassy said.