First India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue held in Washington

The first India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue was held on 22 September 2015 in Washington, the USA.

The meeting was co-chaired by the External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Also, it was attended by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

The purpose of the dialogue was to ramp up bilateral economic exchange to 500 billion US dollars and enhance regional security.

It was the first of its kind as the element of commerce was added to the bilateral strategic dialogue that is being held annually since 2010.

The first Annual Dialogue on India-US Strategic Partnership was held in October 2010 in Washington, the USA and the last stand alone strategic dialogue was held in New Delhi in July 2014.

From a modest 5.6 billion US dollars in 1990, the bilateral trade in merchandise goods has increased to 66.9 billion US dollars in 2014 representing an impressive 1094.6 percent growth in a span of 24 years.

Further, both the countries face similar security threats in the form of terrorism originating from the Af-Pak region.

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