India, US to up ties in oil, energy sector

India and the US on Wednesday pledged to further strengthen economic cooperation and increase engagement in the oil and energy sector with a view to boost bilateral trade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President Mike Pence had "productive discussions on all aspects of global strategic partnership based on growing convergence of interests on regional and global issues" on the sidelines of East Asia Summit here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar said.

Later briefing reporters, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said it was a "very good" meeting.

The two sides had brief discussion on trade-related matters.

In a statement, Pence's office said he encouraged "free, fair, and reciprocal trade with India."

"We agreed that in a new relationship we are building with the US where trade is expanding, we need to find ways in which we can help that process to take place," Gokhale said.

The prime minister said that in the last 2 years, since President Donald Trump has assumed office, American exports to India have grown 50% and it is perhaps the only one of the top 10 countries with which the US has a trade deficit, and the deficit has actually reduced last year and is on course to further reduce this year, Gokhale said.

"There was a lot of discussions on energy. This is a new sector in Indo-US relations. We have begun importing oil and gas from the US worth about $4 billion this year. We expressed our readiness to import more oil and gas from the US as a way of expanding our trade," he said.

The defence sector was another area of cooperation between the two sides.

"Both sides agreed that there had been a substantial enhancement in our defence relationship, in our imports of equipment from the US, but the prime minister stressed that there was a great opportunity for the US in India in making defence equipment and setting up defence industry in India.

"Not only that India is a substantial market but because the way we are placed regionally we can become a hub for exports to the rest of the region," Gokhale said.