Top US diplomat, Nisha Desai Biswal, to travel to India next week

NEW DELHI: US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal will travel to New Delhi during June 6-9, to launch dialogue with the new Modi government.

The State Department said that Biswal would meet "a range of officials" in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, there was no mention of any plan to meet Modi. This is will be first high level visit from the USA since Modi government was formed. Interestingly this visit will coincide with the trip of Chinese Foreign Minister to Delhi.Biswal was last here in March as part of efforts to reset ties after the Devyani Khobragade episode.

Since May 16, the Obama administration had tried to reach out to the Modi government through phone calls from the President himself followed by Secretary of State John Kerry. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Kerry discussed the possibility of increasing bilateral trade. Biswal's visit will also set the stage for Strategic Dialogue between the two Ministers likely after mid-2014 in Washington.

Biswal will reach New Delhi after Tajikistan and then China, but she will arrive to push forward with “the full scope of bilateral and regional issues,” the Department said.

Pointing out that this would be the first visit to India by a senior State Department official since India’s national elections, the statement announcing her visit added that she would "meet with key strategic thinkers and business leaders."