India, US discuss cooperation on trade to terrorism

Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had a series of interactions with interlocutors in the US government on issues ranging from ease of doing business to cooperation on terrorism and climate change.

On a short visit to Washington, Jaishankar met, among others, US National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman Monday.

At his meeting with Rice in the White House, they reviewed the implementation of initiatives taken during the two summits between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama in the past one year, the Indian Embassy said.

They also discussed India's role in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region, including for promotion of connectivity and economic integration and relief and reconstruction in Nepal after the earthquake of April 2015.

Blinken, who hosted a luncheon in honour of the foreign secretary, discussed with him a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of topical relevance.

They also explored deeper collaboration and engagement to address emerging global challenges like terrorism, climate change and cyber issues and policy coordination on internet governance and other matters.

Jaishankar's meeting with Froman covered the ground of India-US economic and commercial engagement.

They agreed to work together to promote and reinvigorate economic partnership, and to create infrastructure and policy framework to make it attractive for businesses of the two sides to engage with each other, the embassy said.

Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Dana J. Hyde, also called on Jaishankar and briefed him on the MCC's planned engagement with India.

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