'Khobragade incident led to misunderstanding with US'

The Devyani Khobragade incident caused a certain "misunderstanding" in relations but India has "insulated" that issue from the rest of its relationship with America, India's Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said here Saturday.

"You are right that the incident relating to Indian diplomat in New York caused certain degree of misunderstanding for a certain period of time and we are discussing the issue of privileges and immunity quite separately," Sujatha Singh told women journalists at a special event here to mark the International Women's Day.

Khobragade was arrested on Dec 12 in New York on visa fraud charges. The incident triggered a row between the two countries with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain categories of US diplomats among other steps.

The foreign secretary said: "The Indo-US relations are strong and we continue to grow from strength to strength. The United States is one of India's most important strategic partners and we have always maintained that."

"We have insulated that (Khobragade incident) from rest of our relationship...energy secretary (of the US) is coming next week. There are several other dialogues in process and they will continue," she said.