U.S. secretary of state John Kerry is in India to co-chair the fifth India-US Strategic Dialogue with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on July 31. The trip marks the first U.S. cabinet-level visit to New Delhi since the Narendra Modi-led government took over office and is being seen as the build-up to a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Modi in Washington on 30 September.
U.S. defence secretary Chuck Hagel is also expected to visit India next month. Kerry’s visit for the dialogue will see him and other top members of the Obama administration — among them secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker, deputy secretary of the department of energy Daniel Poneman, under secretary of the department of homeland security Francis X. Taylor and special envoy for climate change in the department of state Todd Stern — reaching out to members of the new government.
On the discussion table will be a range of key bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. India and the U.S. had launched the Strategic Dialogue in July 2009, focusing on five pillars of mutual interest namely Strategic Cooperation, Energy and Climate Change, Education and Development, Economy and Trade, Science and Technology and Health and Innovation. The first Strategic Dialogue was held in Washington in June 2010, followed by successive rounds in New Delhi in July 2011, Washington in June 2012 and New Delhi in June 2013.