Vision To Showcase Future Indo-Us Ties

A Vision document, a joint statement to be signed and issued by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and US President Bill Clinton here on March 21, will be the highlight of the visit, spelling out the direction in which Indo-US relations will travel henceforth.

An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said that the Vision statement would set the direction for future Indo-US relations. India has already described the impending visit as directional and initiating a qualitatively new relationship. The spokesman said that two other documents would be signed.

One of these would be an agreement, to be signed at the Ministerial level, for setting up a high-level Science and Technology Forum to facilitate cooperation in research and development and transfer of technology.

 

The Forum would be inclusive of government,corporate and academic scientists from both countries.

The Governing Body of the Forum would consist of seven eminent persons from each country with the Department of Science and Technology providing the official interface from the Indian side. The Forum would receive matching grants from both governments, facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information on science and technology and commission studies.

The third, the spokesman said, would be a statement on cooperation in energy and environment focusing on promotion of energy and protection of environment. It would be signed at the Ministerial level at Agra on March 22.

In Agra the President was scheduled to address an environmental meeting and would highlight the pivotal role of energy in economic development and the risks to environment concomitant on unsustainable energy use.

The statement would envisage the setting up of a joint consultative group on clean energy and environment,the spokesman said.