Kicking off their first-ever strategic dialogue, India and the US today vowed to strengthen their cooperation in key areas like defence, counter-terrorism, education, nuclear energy, agriculture and climate change.
External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his American counterpart Hillary Clinton began their day-long deliberations at the State Department with the American leader calling India a "rising global power".
Clinton said the US was committed to the modernisation of India's military and that the US military holds the maximum number of joint exercises with the Indian Army.
She stressed the need for cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism in the form of better intelligence sharing as the two countries are "seared by acts of terrorism".
Krishna said the threat of trans-national terrorism requires both India and the US to cooperate more closely than ever before though the epicentre of this threat lies in India's neighbourhood.
"The threat of trans-national terrorism requires both India and the US to cooperate more closely than ever before though the epicentre of this threat lies in India's neighbourhood it reaches far and wide all across the world as witnessed recently a few weeks back in Times Square," he said.