Nisha Biswal, the Obama administration’s Indian-origin point person for South Asia, will be visiting India next week for what would be the first substantive bilateral dialogue since the diplomatic rift triggered by the Devyani Khobragade episode last December.
It would be Biswal’s first visit to India in her new capacity as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs — a visit that was initially slated for January but had to be put off because of the protracted spat over the arrest and strip-search of diplomat Khobragade in New York.
At her meetings in New Delhi, Biswal will “discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including our shared defense, security, and economic engagement across the Indo-Pacific corridor”, the State Department announced.
Biswal kicks off her three-day trip, beginning March 4, with a visit to Bangalore, where she would hold discussions on joint efforts to foster innovation, increase high-tech and engineering engagement, and strengthen US-India economic ties.
During the visit, Biswal “will seek to further broaden and deepen the US-India relationship, which President Obama has called one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century”, the State Department said.
In comments ahead of the visit, Biswal spoke of the “breadth and quality of our strategic partnership with India”.
India’s Ambassador to the United States S Jaishankar, meanwhile, has highlighted the need for interlocutors on both sides to get into a “problem-solving mode”.
In the backdrop of thorny trade policy issues being whipped up by the US government, lawmakers and industry, and the recent institution of an investigation by the US International Trade Commission on India’s investment and trade policies, Jaishankar cautioned against public fights on these issues.
listing some of the recent issues such as the US’s downgrading of India’s aviation safety status, attacks on Indian pharmaceutical industry and the filing of a WTO complaint against India’s solar industry, he noted: “We cannot wish this reality away and the sensible thing to do is to switch to a problem-solving mode. But to do that, we need to get off public argumentation platforms where we find ourselves more often than is good for our ties.”
In an address to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the ambassador commented: “The United States can be an indispensable partner on every score. None of this, however, is a foregone conclusion. They will only be outcomes of a relationship that is assiduously tended by constant gardeners.”
“My sense is that India greatly values its reputation as being open to international business. Concerns perceived to be legitimate will be addressed and that has actually been our recent record,” Jaishankar said, but warned: “It would be a mistake to pile on public pressure, especially through a misrepresentation of facts.”
Stating that demands “a two-way street”, he also pointed to issues of concern to India such as provisions in the immigration reform legislation that attack Indian service industry’s viability in the US, revenues forfeited by the absence of progress on a totalisation agreement, and restricted market access.