Washington: A day after Foreign Secretary
Nirupama Rao met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
National Security Advisor James Jones, the United States
has said it has a rich strategic dialogue with India.
"We have a very rich, strategic dialogue with India,"
State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman, Mark Toner, said.
Without going into specific details of the meeting,
Toner said: "I can certainly imagine that they did talk about
dialogue between Pakistan and India, and better cooperation."
During Clinton`s visit to India in July last, both
nations instituted a Strategic Dialogue.
In a statement on Tuesday, Indian Embassy had said Rao
had briefed the top Obama Administration officials about her
recent talks with her Pakistani counterpart and conveyed the
United States New Delhi`s view point on Afghanistan.
"Foreign Secretary briefed the US side about her talks
with the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan last month. She
exchanged views on recent developments related to Afghanistan
and stressed that Afghanistan presented the foremost security
related challenge in the region," the Embassy had said.
She reiterated India`s long held position that it was
important for the international community to stay the present
course in Afghanistan for as long as it is necessary.
"The US interlocutors conveyed their appreciation of
the important developmental work being done by India in
Afghanistan," it said.
Rao met Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs,
Robert Hormats and Under Secretary of State for Democracy
Global Affairs, Maria Otero.
The Foreign Secretary also met Congressman Gary
Ackerman and Senator Joseph Lieberman.
External Affairs Minister, S M Krishna is expected to
visit Washington soon for the first round of Strategic
Dialogue with Clinton.
"The bilateral meetings of the Foreign Secretary with
US interlocutors provided an opportunity to review the
progress on various pillars of India-US Strategic Dialogue
agenda including cooperation in defense, nuclear energy,
counter-terrorism, agriculture, education, energy, space,
cyber-security etc," the Indian Embassy said.
PTI
