Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai will visit the Washington DC from February 20-22 to hold Indo-US Foreign Office Consultations with the U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
Both sides are expected deliberate on bilateral cooperation in key strategic areas, and the current regional situation in South Asia.
He is also expected to meet and hold discussions with the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy Daniel Poneman, the Deputy Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter, and the Under of State for Energy, Economic Growth and the Environment, Robert Hormats, among others.
Following the conclusion of the Consultations, he will speak at the Carnegie Endowment office on ‘A 21st Century India-United States partnership for peace, prosperity and progress.’
This visit comes just days after the India-Afghanistan-U.S. trilateral dialogue was held in New Delhi, signalling the significance of the role India will play in the post-2014 Afghanistan.
The New Delhi-Washington DC bilateral is gaining momentum. The relationship, over the past few years, has become increasingly broad based, covering cooperation in areas such as trade, defence, education, science, and civil nuclear energy, among others. In 2011-2012, foreign direct investments (FDI) from the U.S. contributed to 3.48% of India’s total FDI, making it the fourth largest source of FDI into India.