Arun Kumar

Washington, March 9 India and the U.S. are set to significantly expand bilateral trade in strategic and high technology areas after a meeting here next week of the India-US High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG), its first since President Barack Obama took office.

The seventh meeting of the HTCG will be co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao with Dennis F. Hightower, Deputy Secretary of Commerce on March 15-16, the Indian embassy here announced on Monday.

"Both sides hope to consolidate the progress made in the last five years and move ahead to significantly expand bilateral trade in strategic and high technology areas," an embassy spokesman said.

The HTCG was formed in 2002 to provide a forum for discussing US-India high-technology trade issues and building the confidence necessary to facilitate trade in sensitive items.

Rao will be visiting Washington and New York from March 14-19. During her visit the US-India Business Council (USIBC) will host the industry dialogue on March 15 here.

This industry dialogue is organised in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The dialogue will give the U.S. and Indian industry representatives an opportunity to discuss ways in which the two governments can facilitate trade in specific industry sectors, and make suggestions to the Governments of India and the U.S.

These industry suggestions provide substantive input for bilateral government meetings that occur the following day.

Apart from meetings in the Commerce Department, Rao will also be meeting senior members of the US Administration as well as the US Congress during her stay in Washington.

India and the U.S. had agreed on establishing a Strategic Dialogue to be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and also a revised Dialogue Architecture last year during Clinton's visit to India last July.

Rao in her meetings in the State Department will review the progress made on various elements of the revised dialogue architecture and also discuss the way ahead in preparation for Krishna's visit to the U.S. later this year for the next round of Strategic Dialogue. Regional and global issues of mutual interest would also figure in these talks, the spokesman said.