Asst. Sec. of State concludes visit to India.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW DELHI: US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal has announced that the US looks forward to working with new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the first diplomatic visit of a high-ranking US official to India since Modi and the BJP took control of the country’s government.
Biswal, who oversees Central and South Asia for the State Department, landed in India on Saturday for a three-day tour that ended on Monday. Her visit is her second ever, having embarked on her first trip to India as the Assistant Secretary of State back in March, and comes just days after it was announced that Modi will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House in September.
During her meetings over the weekend, Biswal told her counterpart in the Ministry of External Affairs that she and the US government will work closely with Modi. Biswal and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh are said to have worked on finalizing a date for the Modi/Obama meeting, which will surely be a landmark event in the US-India relationship, and will take place during the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Biswal, whose family originally hails from India, was one of the Obama administration’s first officials to go on-record as saying that the US is looking forward to working with Modi. Now, Biswal and the White House are reinforcing that position, hoping to mend ties between the two democracies and move ahead with a relationship that promises to yield significant fruit for both sides.
Biswal’s trip to India also coincides with that of Kathleen Stephens, the new interim US Ambassador to India, who will temporarily take over the position from outgoing Ambassador Nancy Powell. Obama has yet to appoint a permanent replacement for Powell.