India, US hope for global strategic partnership

India and the US hope to set new milestones as they hold their first strategic dialogue yesterday to transform their growing relationship into a global strategic partnership encompassing a broad range from political to economic to social ties.
'We are expecting a very positive outcome from the talks. There are very positive vibrations,' External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told IANS ahead of the dialogue he leads with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
India was not looking for short term deliverables from the talks, but a broad ranging partnership between the world's two largest democracies to meet the challenges of the 21st century, he said.
The high-powered Indian delegation includes Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan.
In a rare gesture, President Barack Obama, who has called the US-Indian relationship 'one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century', plans to attend a reception for Krishna at the State Department after the dialogue to discount perceptions that he is not as warm towards India as his predecessor George Bush.
Krishna's comments came after Wednesday's foreign policy dialogue between Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and US Under Secretary of State William Burns to set the tone for Thursday's ministerial level talks.
Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar, Joint Secretary (Americas) Gayatri Kumar, US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake also joined the intensive dialogue.