India-USA....Where is the beef?
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Like Hilary Clinton's intention to make India into a 'Great Power' it is just hot air, unless concrete legislation is enacted to make the above a reality.
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John Kerry confident India-US bilateral trade can increase five-fold to $500bn
(by 2050)
PTI and Times of India
India
and the US on Tuesday kicked off the first strategic and commercial
dialogue with a focus on boosting trade ties and enhancing regional
security ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with President
Barack Obama.
US secretary of state John Kerry and external
affairs minister Sushma Swaraj highlighted the priority areas in
bilateral ties as they inaugurated the India-US Strategic and Commercial
Dialogue.
Swaraj said India and US are on a path of increased cooperation.
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"This is a very busy time for India and US relations. Its important
that we set timelines to achieve our targets," she said thanking Kerry
for very fruitful discussions between the two countries ahead of Prime
Minister Modi's visit to the US.
Kerry said India and the US can together shape up more secure and prosperous future.
He said the US was not satisfied with the current level of bilateral
trade at $100 billion and expressed confidence that it could be
increased five-fold in the next few years.
Kerry said that Prime Minister Modi will meet President Obama next week.
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"The impressive intensity, scale and level of achievements in our
bilateral engagement since last year, is a testimony to the leadership,
direct supervision and the tremendous importance attached to the
bilateral relationship by our leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President
Obama," Swaraj said.
"The emerging context of the India-US
political, strategic and security, and economic ties continues to be
constantly shaped by international geo-politics, the strength of the
Indian economy amidst global economic uncertainties and the need for
partnership among democracies to respond to some of the global
challenges like terrorism," she said.
Swaraj said the narrative
and specifics of substantive cooperative agenda were shaped by
increasing convergences of strategic interests and mutual concerns,
including in the Indian Ocean Region and the Asia-Pacific.
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"A strong intent to tailor the relationship to harness political
synergies and optimize economic complementarities, bilaterally,
regionally and globally, permeates India's approach to its ties with the
US," the minister said.
Defence and security cooperation,
strategic political engagement including in the field of civil nuclear
cooperation, science and technology, health, space, energy, trade and
investment are some of the domains where the two nations have sustained
intense delivery oriented engagement, she said.
"In some other
domains though, creativity and shaper focus would ensure that we meet
mutually agreed objectives and targets," Swaraj said.
"This
dialogue provides us the opportunity to assess where we stand in terms
of the goals that we had set for ourselves and set targets and
objectives for the future. It is also important that we give ourselves
timelines to achieve the targets. We should also be in a position to
present to our leaders a clear vision of the road ahead," she added.
"We firmly believe that an economically prosperous India offers a long
term opportunity to the US industry and capital," she said.
The
first India-US Strategic Dialogue, announced during the India visit of
Obama in January this year, is being hosted by Kerry along with commerce
secretary Penny Pritzker at the department of state.
Swaraj
arrived here on Monday to lead the Indian delegation for the dialogue
which also includes commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman and power
minister Piyush Goyal.