Washington, June 8: President Barack Obama on his maiden visit to India will be looking for “ambitious results” with the focus on forging closer links on strategic issues.
 “The (US) President himself is looking forward to ambitious results and again sees our relations with India as one of the most consequential and indispensable of our partnerships in the world of the 21st century,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, said.
 “The Strategic Dialogue that we initiated last week took US-India relations to unprecedented new levels of cooperation that will be highlighted during the (US) President’s visit in November,” Blake told reporters in his interaction after the first Indo-US Strategic Dialogue held here on June 3.
 The US will develop a schedule and a series of results to match Obama’s goals, Blake said.
 “That’s exactly what we’re starting to work on right now, is the details of what the President’s visit will entail, what will be the key areas of strategic focus, where will he visit, and all of these many important questions,” Blake said when asked what should one expect from Obama’s November visit.
 Last week, Obama himself announced that he would travel to India in early November and said he is proud to visit the country. As of now his travel dates to India has been tentatively scheduled from November 7 to November 10.
 Referring to the Strategic Dialogue, Blake said, “It was notable because for the first time in our history, we had large numbers of Cabinet-level secretaries on our side and ministers on the Indian side to share ideas and to consider strategic initiatives on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues,” he said,
 The US said it recognises that India has a stake and interest in Afghanistan and this issue was discussed with the Indian leaders during the last week’s Indo-US Strategic Dialogue in Washington.
 It’s really up to India to decide how -- where it wants to take its cooperation from here but we commend the steps they’ve taken so far, Blake said.
 “We had a discussion about ways that we might be able to cooperate together,” he said.
 “We also have reaffirmed our support for the very important work that India has undertaken there and our determination to see if we can find ways to work together more in Afghanistan, because we do believe that India’s playing a constructive role. So that may be a new area of cooperation for us,” Blake said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST