By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : India and the United States Thursday began their first ever strategic dialogue with the two sides putting fight against terrorism and nuclear security at the top of their agenda encompassing defence, education, energy, agriculture and climate change.
“The global nature of the security challenges that we face today, particularly the threat posed by transnational terrorism, requires us to cooperate more closely than ever before,” said External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna as the two delegations met at the State Department.
“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 without mentioning Pakistan.
“Security is a top priority because both our nations have been seared by acts of terrorism on hour home soils,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlining the contours of a partnership that “will shape the rest of this century”.
“India is not only a rising global power, but it’s already a regional power,” she said and added that “through this dialogue we will confront regional concerns, most urgently securing Afghanistan”.
The US was committed to the modernisation of India’s military as demonstrated by their defence trade, Clinton said noting the US military holds the maximum number of joint exercises with the Indian Army.