News International Sanctions waiver smooths way for US-India talks
Sanctions waiver smooths way for US-India talks
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- Published on Thursday, 14 June 2012 02:00
- Written by AP
By A Web design Company
WASHINGTON — The United States is holding high-level talks on Wednesday aimed at boosting relations with India, a critical partner for US interests in Asia.
The threat of US sanctions against India for its large yet declining oil imports from Iran was lifted two days before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s meeting with India’s foreign minister, S.M. Krishna, for an annual strategic dialogue in Washington.
But differences remain, particularly over India’s reluctance to undertake economic reforms. Despite the fast growth in trade between the two countries, barriers to investment still frustrate US companies.
President Barack Obama visited India in late 2010 and declared that the US-India relationship would be a defining partnership of the 21st century.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited India earlier this month, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will become the fifth Cabinet-level US official to do so this year when he travels there at the end of June.
“Our ties have never been stronger,” Clinton said Tuesday. “We are working together like never before to build an open, free, transparent and fair economic system, to promote peace and prosperity in South Asia and the Asia-Pacific, to coordinate international responses to violent extremism and so much more.”
This week’s dialogue attests to the breadth of US-India cooperation, including on education, energy and climate change, science and technology, and health.
Growth in the partnership contrasts with deteriorating US relations with India’s neighbor and rival Pakistan, which eyes the deepening ties with suspicion.
