Jaswant, Albright hold talks

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22. India and the U.S. today discussed the nitty- gritty of their Annual Foreign Policy dialogue and ways to add substance to their wideranging institutional contacts.

According to the Foreign Office spokesman, the 50- minute meeting between the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh and the U.S. Secretary of State, Ms. Madeleine Albright, focussed on the nuts and bolts of the foreign policy dialogue and related themes which were spelt out during the meeting between the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The annual dialogue between the External Affairs Minister and the U.S. Secretary of State, which has been incorporated in the Indo- US Vision statement, would be ``broadbased'' and look at all aspects of India-US relations. It can also monitor the working of other groups which have been formed within the framework of the Indo-US institutional dialogue.

Another meeting between Mr. Singh and the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Strobe Talbott, today, looked at ways to substantiate the overall ``dialogue architecture''. The overall framework of the India-U.S. dialogue includes the formation of a financial and economic forum, the formation of the working group on trade, a consultative group on clean energy and environment, a commercial dialogue as well as the establishment of a India-US Science and Technology forum.

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