By Ankit Panda
John Kerry, flanked by several high-level U.S. officials, will be in New Delhi this week.
The United States and India will meet for their fifth annual Strategic Dialogue on July 31. The dialogue will mark the first significant high-level bilateral diplomatic interaction between the two sides since Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India following a landslide electoral victory. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will lead the Indian side at the Strategic Dialogue.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is scheduled to travel to New Delhi later this week, set the tone for the dialogue in a speech at the Center for American Progress (CAP) in Washington D.C. on Monday. Kerry noted that the Strategic Dialogue could be a “potentially transformative moment” for U.S.-India bilateral relations. Not only will the United States begin forging closer ties with a new Indian government under the BJP, but the dust appears to have finally settled from a scandal involving the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York last fall which caused a massive rift between the two countries.
In his remarks Monday evening, Kerry specifically emphasized the United States’ interest in working with the Modi government. Kerry praised Modi’s development initiatives, specifically citing Modi’s “Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas” slogan (“Together with all, development for all”). State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki also emphasized the importance the United States is attaching to this week’s Strategic Dialogue with India: ”Secretary Kerry’s visit underscores the importance of the U.S.-India partnership, and will lay the groundwork for Prime Minister Modi’s September visit to the United States.” She added that ”in addition to holding the Strategic Dialogue, Kerry will meet Modi, the first cabinet level meeting with a U.S. official since the inauguration of the new Indian government.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat