U.S. expects news of major India deals

Nov 06, 2010 |

Reuters

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Obama visit

U.S. officials said on Friday they expect major contracts involving U.S. companies and India to be announced during President Barack Obama's visit to India on Saturday.

"We expect several deals to be announced around the president's visit tomorrow," Mike Froman, Obama's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, told reporters traveling to India with Obama.

Administration officials declined to provide further information on the agreements.

Obama left on Friday for a 3-1/2 day visit to India, his first stop on a 10-day tour of four Asian countries. Obama has said he wants the trip to lead to more U.S. exports and jobs.

Lobbying for billions of dollars in contracts to overhaul India's mostly Russian-supplied military, a relic of their Cold War-era partnership, has underlied preparation for the trip.

Those orders include a $11 billion deal for 126 fighter jets that could benefit Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. France's Dassault, Russia's MiG-35, Sweden's Saab and the Eurofighter Typhoon as also competing.

Obama's trip started just three days after his Democratic party sustained big election losses tied to the weak economy.

Administration officials also said that intense negotiations were continuing on a free trade agreement with Korea, but said they had no updates on the status of efforts to remove obstacles to a long-stalled U.S.-South Korean free trade agreement in time for Obama's meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul.

"Our teams are engaged with each other in an ongoing way," Froman said.

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