United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, to convince her to allow foreign direct investment in retail and to reach a consensus with Bangladesh over sharing of the Teesta waters. The U.S. Secretary of State who is on a three-day visit to India expressed the hope that Kolkata would become an important hub in the new Silk Road Strategy to connect the countries of East, South and Central Asia.
She met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon to discuss the civil-nuclear cooperation, terrorism, situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Iranian nuclear issue. Clinton urged India to further reduce Iranian oil imports as the latter may face sanctions starting in July if it doesn’t do so.
She also called on the Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna to set the stage for the India-U.S. strategic dialogue in Washington next month.