Rao meets Burns in Washington

Rao, who arrived here from New York late Sunday, had detailed discussion with Burns, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, yesterday.

The two diplomats reviewed the Indo-US dialogue architecture after the visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India in July and preparation for the State visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November, sources said.

Rao visited Washington at the invitation of Burns. The special invitation to visit Washington at a time when the entire Obama Administration is in New York is seen as a "special gesture" from the US State Department.

She also met Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Maria Otero, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.

Besides areas of bilateral cooperation, they also discussed issues related to counter-terrorism, energy, green technology, agriculture, civil nuclear cooperation and education.

Rao, who left Washington for New York later in the evening, would have a second round of discussion with Burns again in New York later this week, on the sidelines of the General Assembly session of the United Nations. She would also meet Special US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrook in New York.

Because of scheduling conflict, Holbrooke has not been able to visit India since the July visit of Clinton. Since then he has visited the region twice.