India and the US would hold the second round of their “strategic dialogue” in New Delhi on April 6 during which secretary of state Hillary Clinton would lead the American side, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has announced here.
“This time the meeting would take place in New Delhi on April 6. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton would travel to India for that meeting,” Ms Rao told reporters on Tuesday evening at the end of her three-day US visit.
Ms Rao, who was basically here for foreign office consultations, discussed on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, besides the developments in Egypt.
She had a lengthy meeting with under secretary of state for political affairs William Burns, besides having called on Ms Clinton at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the state department.
Ms Rao briefed the US officials on the recent Indo-Pak talks in Bhutan and New Delhi’s perspective on it. Ms Rao said she and Mr Burns discussed the steps being taken by the two nations on implementation of the decisions reached during the India visit of US President Barack Obama in November 2010.
They also prepared the ground work for the second “strategic dialogue” between the two countries.
“I had a very useful meeting with the secretary of state Hillary Clinton,” Ms Rao said. “This visit also afforded the opportunity to take stock of the regional and global situation. The situation in the region has been an object of focus in our discussion, previously also with the United States,” she said. Ms Rao also met a number of top officials from the separtments of sefence and sommerce and the National Security Council at the White House. She also met Senators Richard Lugar and Mark Warner and Congressman Howard Berman at the Capitol Hill. —PTI