India has asked the United States to resist protectionist tendency and not to erect barriers to hinder free movement of skilled professionals.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Monday told the visiting American Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, that New Delhi expected Washington to ensure continued free flow of skilled professionals from India to the US.

Sherman is the first senior American diplomat to visit India after the US presidential polls earlier this month gave Barack Obama a second term in the White House. Obama’s campaign rhetoric against outsourcing of jobs fuelled speculations about American government resorting to measures to discourage Indian professionals in Information Technology and other sectors to move to the US.

Sources said Khurshid had drawn Sherman’s attention to the importance of addressing the issues relating to Indian professionals in the US, especially matters relating to visas. Sherman responded that the US was committed to working with India on the issue. She also congratulated Khurshid on his assumption of office of the External Affairs Minister.