The Second Annual Meeting of the India-US Strategic Dialogue Held in New Delhi

The Second annual meeting of the India-US strategic dialogue was held in New Delhi on 19 July 2011 to strengthen the India-US global strategic partnership.  The dialogue was held during the official visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India. The two nations issued a joint statement at the end of the dialogue. The main features of the statement are as following—
•    India, the United States, and Japan plan to commence a trilateral dialogue at senior official level.
•    The two sides reaffirmed their commitment for consultation, coordination, and cooperation on Afghanistan, and to work jointly in Afghanistan in capacity building, agriculture, and women’s empowerment, expanding on work already underway. Both sides agreed to Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and inclusive reconciliation.
•    The two sides intend to promote food security in Africa through a triangular cooperation program with Liberia, Malawi, and Kenya.
•    The United States looks forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.
•    India-USA reiterated their commitment to further strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation, including through intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation, and access to advanced counter-terrorism technology and equipment.
•    India -USA reiterated that success in Afghanistan and regional and global security requires elimination of safe havens and infrastructure for terrorism and violent extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
•    The two sides reiterated their commitment on comprehensive sharing of information on the investigations and trials relating to the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
•    The United States welcomed India’s decision to chair a plenary of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia in 2012.
•    The two governments signed a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) on July 18.
•    The Women’s Empowerment Dialogue is planned for September 2011 in New Delhi.
•    The United States created the Passport to India initiative to encourage an increase in the number of American students studying and interning in India.

Important Information
The next meeting of the Indo-US Strategic Dialogue is planned for Washington D.C. in 2012. The inaugural Strategic Dialogue was held in June 2010.

The Importance of Indo-US strategic dialogue
The Strategic Dialogue provides an opportunity to take stock of the progress in bilateral relationship, bilateral cooperation, as well as to consult on global and regional issues of interest, besides charting out a short to medium-term roadmap of cooperation in priority sectors for  India-US.

The strategic dialogue mechanism has come to be regarded as one of the very effective mechanisms to maintain the momentum of deepening and expanding global strategic partnership between India and US. It was outlined by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Obama during Prime Minister’s state visit to Washington in November, 2009.