Visit to include talks with Burns, Sherman.
Bureau Report
WASHINGTON, DC: India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai is visiting Capitol Hill to meet with top officials of the State Department, including the new Secretary of State John Kerry, on February 21st.
Mathai will also meet with Deputy Secretary William Burns, as well as Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, at the State Department. Later in the evening he will attend a dinner in his honor being hosted by India’s Ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao.
Mathai and Rao have a lot in common: he had taken over his current post from Rao two years ago, after relinquishing his post as India’s Ambassador to France.
Last month, Mathai had met with Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Robert D. Hormats, who had visited Agra and New Delhi, and delivered remarks at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Partnership Summit 2013 in Agra.
Mathai visits the US at a time when issues concerning the Indian Diaspora at the forefront of American politics, including the immigration reforms issue as well as growing bilateral relations.
Earlier this month, the White House had described India as “an incredibly important country in the world”, adding that President Barack Obama will continue to increase bilateral relations with New Delhi.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Obama was keen to further ties between the two countries, and bring it to a new threshold.
“The president’s views have not changed, both on the importance and value of the Indian American community and the importance and value of the bilateral relationship that we have developed with India,” Carney said.
“India is an incredibly important country in the world, not just in the region, and the President looks forward to continuing to enhance the depth of our relationship to work together on common goals in the region and around the world,” said Carney.
“And I think you can expect in his second term that he will consider it a success if at the end of his second term that bilateral relationship is stronger even than it is today,” he said.