India, US to speed up negotiations

India and the United States (US) are set to fast-track bilateral diplomatic engagements over the next few weeks to zero in on the possible outcomes of US President Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi in January.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Desai Biswal will arrive here on Sunday. Biswal and her Indian counterpart Vinay Mohan Kwatra, joint secretary (Americas), will meet on Monday to review progress in implementation of the decisions taken by Obama and Modi during the latter’s visit to the US in September.

Biswal will also call on Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and other senior officials.
Though her visit to New Delhi was pre-scheduled, Jeff Rathke, director, Press Office of the US State Department, told journalists in Washington that it would give Biswal “the opportunity to contribute to developing the agenda” for the visit of the American president. 

US Trade Representative, Michael Froman will also arrive on Monday. Froman and his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman, minister of state for Commerce and Industries (independent charge), will co-chair the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) on Tuesday.

“This is an important opportunity to follow-through on Prime Minister Modi and President Obama’s commitment to use the TPF to deepen our trade and investment relationship and help achieve the potential of our strategic partnership,” Froman saidi.

Sitharaman and Froman last week announced an agreement between India and US on public stockpiling of food, clearing the way for ending the impasse over Trade Facilitation Agreement at the World Trade Organisation.