In another sign of relations emerging from under the shadow of the Khobragade affair, US assistant secretary of state Nisha Biswal will be visiting India early March.
The visit was earlier scheduled for sometime in January but was cancelled because of the sudden deterioration in ties over the arrest of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York.
This will be Biswal’s first trip to her country of birth as assistant secretary of state. The family immigrated to the US from Gujarat when she was only six.
“The breadth and quality of our strategic partnership with India attests to the underlying strength and salience of our relations,” Biswal said in a statement ahead of the visit, adding, “The United States is proud to partner with India on virtually every field of human endeavor, from innovative solutions to poverty and disease to space exploration, from counterterrorism and security cooperation to higher education and people-to-people ties.”
The official will go first to Bangalore, on March 4. She will meet government and business leaders to discuss joint efforts to “foster innovation, increase our high-tech and engineering engagement, and strengthen US-India economic ties”, said a state department statement announcing the visit.
Biswal will then go to New Delhi where she is expected to meeting senior government officials to talk about “the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including our shared defense, security, and economic engagement across the Indo-Pacific corridor”.
{{/usCountry}}Biswal will then go to New Delhi where she is expected to meeting senior government officials to talk about “the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including our shared defense, security, and economic engagement across the Indo-Pacific corridor”.
{{/usCountry}}She is scheduled to speak about India-US ties at an event at the American Center on March 6.