New Delhi, May 10 (ANI): US Deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, met Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai here on Friday during which they reviewed the full range of bilateral relations and agreed to focus further on the economic issues.
According to official sources, India raised matters relating to immigration reforms currently under consideration in the USA and sought greater access for highly-skilled non-immigrant categories, while the US raised issues relating to Preferential Market Access.
There was also a detailed discussion on energy related issues including reiteration of Indian interest in LNG sales from the US. Education as a future pillar of the Indo-US relations .
Official sources further said India also reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing nuclear cooperation with the US. Both sides looked forward to the commercial aspects of civil Nuclear Agreement being taken forward. There was a discussion on regional issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.
The US Deputy Secretary of State also made a courtesy call on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. In his meeting with Dr. Singh, William Burns recalled the distance that Indo-US relations had traversed since early 2000 and attributed the success to the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister.
The US Deputy Secretary of State's visit to India comes as part of the ongoing process of high-level engagement between US and India. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, was here last month, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had visited Washington in April. Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister M.M. Pallam Raju is leaving on a visit to US for the education dialogue and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will visit Washington for the homeland security dialogue.
The present visit was in preparation for the forthcoming Strategic Dialogue between US and India scheduled to be held in New Delhi in the latter half of June. (ANI)
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