The United States and India have held high-level talks this week to increase bilateral trade and investment in response to urging from both governments, which seek to enhance their strategic partnership. Ministers, senior government officials, and business leaders met in New York City to work on details from a blueprint drawn up by a U.S.-India forum established a year ago by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The closed-door talks began with a meeting between U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierez and the White House's National Economic Council chief Allan Hubbard and India's Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Deputy Chairman of Planning Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The ministers discussed a range of bilateral issues, including trade policy, information technology, agriculture, and energy, officials from both sides said. Later, U.S. and Indian corporate leaders met, including JP Morgan Chase chairman William Harrison and Ratan Tata, head of the Tata empire. They were accompanied by the chief executives of companies such as Boeing, PepsiCo, Merck, Lucent Technologies, Honeywell, Dow Chemicals, and Citigroup. Bush and Singh had asked the U.S.-India forum to develop a plan for increased partnership and cooperation at a business level as part of a new strategic relationship between the world's two largest democracies.
