Sympathies to brave people of Hyderabad, tweets Kerry.
Bureau Report
WASHINGTON, DC: India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai met briefly with the US Secretary of State John Kerry here, who expressed his condolences and condemnation at the loss of life as a result of the terror attacks in Hyderabad.
Kerry later also tweeted his meeting Mathai: ‘Saw friend/Foreign Secretary Mathai– discussed importance of relationship w/ #India, expressed sympathies to brave people of #Hyderabad –JK.”
The US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland also issued a formal statement, condemning the dastardly bomb attacks.
“We condemn the cowardly attack in Hyderabad, India in the strongest possible terms. We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected and to the people of India. The United States stands with India in combating the scourge of terrorism.”
In his meeting with Kerry, Mathai also discussed the proposed visit to India by Kerry for the Third Round of the Bilateral Strategic Dialogue, and Kerry in turn reaffirmed his invitation to the External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, to visit the United States soon.
Mathai also met with Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman. He had a conversation over lunch with Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Robert Hormats as well as extensive and wide-ranging consultations with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman during which the two sides covered bilateral, regional and global issues.
In these discussions, the importance of the bilateral partnership in key areas, including energy, trade and economic development, as well as existing regional and international consultations were reaffirmed. In the year ahead, it is intended that the two sides would increase the frequency and pace of bilateral consultations, including at official and political levels.
Mathai also set out a detailed blueprint of the bilateral relationship in an address on India and the United States in the 21st century, covering all areas of the bilateral partnership at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He pointed out that the Indo-US relations have progressed rapidly and the “new normal” now entails also having over one hundred visits at the senior official and higher level exchanges per year.
“It is normal that our dialogue architecture covers the gamut of governmental activity—from social sector measures to trade and global financial policy coordination; from energy to defence, counter-terrorism and homeland security,” said Mathai.
He said that terrorism is and will remain a pre-eminent security challenge for both the countries. He also recommended a few measures that was imperative for the two countries to undertake, to maintain the close level of cooperation.
“First, from our perspective, closer and more effective cooperation between us on terrorism is critical,’ said Mathi, adding that there was strong public support in India for this aspect of the partnership.
“Second, the relationship between us must now stand squarely on its own merits. It has taken decades for us to stop viewing each other from the prism of each others’ relationships with third countries. As you re-calibrate your presence in Afghanistan, we hope that the transformation of our relationship can accelerate, based on the unique merits of what each side brings to the table,” said Mathi..
“Third, we need to do more to make defence cooperation part of the new normal. We can do so by finding simple process solutions to enable your defence companies to make value-for-money bids to meet our defence requirements. It would also help for us to evolve our relationship towards co-design and joint production of defence material,” he said.
“Fourth, let us recognize that trade and economic cooperation must be about more than finding fault with each others’ policies,” he said. “Both of us need significant investment in industry and manufacture and the jobs that they create. We must find ways to work more closely together in this context.”
According to Mathai, there will be value for U.S. companies to engage in efforts to build several industrial ecosystems in India in a manner that is compatible with each other’s market or employment interests.
“We believe the US industrial and manufacturing sector could witness a significant revival led by your energy and chemical industries,” he said. “We ourselves expect to return to a high GDP growth trajectory – and by high, we mean over 7.5% – in over a year’s time. And we expect that the policy emphasis on manufacturing will start showing tangible results.”
Mathai also emphasized that differences in trade in goods or movement of services to dominate the discourse; energy and education as being strategic openings for the US to invest in the future of India; to work together in a number of multilateral fora—the G-20 being a case in point.
“We need to display towards each other more of that rare commodity: patience,” said Mathai. “We must recognize that the process of drawing us closer together will need consistent attention, regular consultation, regular cooperation, and continued high level engagement.”