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US Vice-President Joe Biden to visit India by July-end

Bhai Zakir

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US Vice-President Joe Biden to visit India by July-end


NEW DELHI: US Vice-President Joe Biden will pay a rare visit to India next, government confirmed on Monday. US secretary of state John Kerry had said during his visit here in June that Biden would soon visit India.

All regional, global and bilateral issues are likely to be discussed during the visit. While an official announcement by India is still awaited, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin admitted that an advance team from the US is already here to prepare for the visit. He said the visit could happen any time between July 20 and July 30.

Biden's visit is important as it will also prepare the groundwork for the summit meeting between US President Barack Obama and PM Manmohan Singh later in the year. The Indian side will hope that the bilateral meet in Washington happens in the last week of September, while Singh is in the US for UNGA. The two sides have been working hard to finalize the dates after Obama sent an invite to Singh earlier this year for what will be their second bilateral meet in Washington.

Biden's visit comes at a time when the two sides are looking to finalize the commercial agreement between NPCIL and Westinghouse for a nuclear reactor in Gujarat. They are hoping that this agreement can pull ties out of the current inertia.

Kerry had said last month during the strategic dialogue here that there was a September deadline for the agreement, suggesting that this could be the main takeaway from the Obama-Singh meeting. The Indo-US civil nuclear agreement of 2008 has not provided an impetus to ties as it was meant to mainly because of the differences between the two countries over India's nuclear liability law which, according to US authorities, will burden American suppliers with liabilities in the event of an accident.


US Vice-President Joe Biden to visit India by July-end - The Times of India
 
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