U.S.- India Economic Dialogue

U.S.- India Economic Dialogue

Allan Hubbard, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India met in Washington June 1 to launch a reinvigorated U.S.-India Economic Dialogue. Ambassador of India Ronen Sen and Interim Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, E. Anthony Wayne, who serves as the Interim U.S. Executive Secretary of the Economic Dialogue, also participated in the meeting.

NEC Director Hubbard and Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia, who chair the Dialogue, agreed that they should focus on making progress on key issues that will promote bilateral trade and investment. They agreed to continue to coordinate closely on the four tracks in the Economic Dialogue (Trade, Commerce, Finance, and Environment), and welcomed the inauguration earlier this week of the Energy Dialogue chaired by Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia and Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman.

They also agreed to explore adding an expanded information and communications technology component to the dialogue and to seek ways to involve senior members of the U.S. and Indian business communities to provide private sector input to the government-to-government discussions.

SOURCE: state.gov 2005/586 Released on June 3, 2005 Media Note, Office of the Spokesman, Washington, DC June 3, 2005