Dialogue amidst India's concerns such as US hiking visa fees, continuing with trade barriers *
Even as defence minister Manohar Parrikar is in Washington, finalising the crucial Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) and higher technology purchases, US secretary of state John Kerry and secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker arrived here to attend the second India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue on Tuesday. They will be joined by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and minister of state for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman.
The dialogue takes places amidst India's concerns such as the US hiking visa fees and continuing with trade barriers. The US may flag issues of rising India-Pakistan tensions that has potential to threaten their interests in the region.
Significantly, Kerry is visiting three religious places – Sishganj Gurdwara, a temple in Chandni Chowk and historic Jamia Masjid in Old Delhi – that highlights India's plurality and co-existence of religions and their places of worship on a single street. All these structures around Chandni Chowk have there for the past many centuries.
Kerry arrived here from Dhaka. Though he didn't add Islamabad to his itinerary, indicating the de-hyphenation of India and Pakistan in the US foreign policy, but the current tensions have been worrying the US and are likely to figure in the talks.
Following the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Obama in 2015 to elevate the India-US Strategic Dialogue to a Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, reflecting the significance of the trade and economic engagement, both sides will discuss and deliberate the entire gamut of cooperation, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
They will take stock of shared priorities of generating sustainable economic growth, creating jobs, improving the business and investment climate, enhancing livelihoods and sustaining the rules-based global order. "The forthcoming Strategic and Commercial Dialogue will also review the progress made in the implementation of the various decisions taken in the recent Summit held in June 2016 in Washington DC and identify possible areas for future cooperation," Swarup said.
Officials said Kerry and Swaraj were likely to discuss recent developments in Asia and the South China Sea dispute. But these are unlikely to find mention in the joint statement because of the sensitivity of the matter.
On the contentious issue of import of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products to India, both countries may move forward by agreeing to standard protocol for importing each product. "The standard protocol will help the US companies clearly understand the needs of India," said an official. The US has been pushing India to do away with testing of its products in India, but New Delhi feels this is important for security and privacy.
India and the US are yet to sign a bilateral investment treaty, but they expect bilateral trade will climb to $500 billion per annum in the next few years from $100 billion now. Trade in goods between the countries was $62 billion in 2015-16.
The first such dialogue was held in September 2015 in Washington DC, which identified the focused areas of cooperation under the two tracks – strategic and commercial. On the commercial track, Nirmala Sitharaman and Penny Pritzker will preside the CEO Forum along with Cyrus Mistry, chairman, Tata Sons and Dave Cote, chairman, Honeywell. Both sides have taken into account the recommendations and have also encouraged greater exchanges. Some of the major areas of intervention following the CEO Forum recommendations are easing up of defence production procedures. India has introduced a new simpler Defence Procurement Procedure Policy.
The FDI policy has also been simplified and conditions relaxed. Norms have been relaxed in brownfield pharma sector, processed food, defence production, Railways etc.
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