OREANDA-NEWS. Following the decision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President Obama in 2015 to elevate the India-US Strategic Dialogue to a Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, reflecting the significance of the trade and economic engagement between the two countries, India and the United States will meet for the 2nd Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S&CD) on Tuesday, 30th August 2016 in New Delhi.

The engagement is likely to cover the discussion between Indian and US CEOs in the forenoon of 30th August. In the afternoon, the S&CD Plenary is scheduled to be held and will be led from the Indian side by India’s External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. The United States delegation will be led by Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry and Secretary of Commerce, Ms. Penny Pritzker. Two Co-Chairs of CEOs Forum, Mr. Cyrus Mistry, Chairman of Tata Group from Indian side and Mr. Dave Cote, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell International from US side would also be present at S&CD plenary. The bilateral discussions would be held thereafter, separately under the two tracks, at 4.30 p.m.

The first S&CD plenary was held in September 2015 at Washington D.C and identified the focused areas of cooperation under the two tracks – Strategic and Commercial. The current S& CD would be reviewing the progress made so far in strengthening the agreed upon issues and lay down the road map for the ensuing year, under the two tracks.