Indian Prime Minister's visit will be the first state visit of the new US administration and that way President Obama has given India a special pride of place in its global foreign policy framrwork. During the discussions, the two leaders are expected to take up a number of global and regional issues but the two most important issues will be the CTBT and the US assistance to Pakistan to fight Taliban without seeking any accountability from the Zardari regime.The US sources officially mentioned that the two leaders will follow up the strategic dialogue that was launched in July this year and review the progress made in the dialogue.

On the CTBT issue, India's position is clear. It has to be in phases and the first step should be the attainment of the goals of full nuclear disarmament. India has already explained its position and there is hope in the Indian foreign ministry that the Obama administration will appreciate the Indian standpoint and the differences will not have any impact on the other issues including the follow-up on the roadmap of civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries. On the terrorism issue, India is expected to be very blunt and point it out to the US President that Pakistan is not implementing its programme of fighting the terrorists as per understanding with the US and the ISI, the foreign intelligence unit of the Pakistan , is still active in giving some assistance to the terrorists for actions against India. In fact, Indian agencies have reports that the ISI has been driving the terrorists including the Taliban to sneak to the Indian side for shelter and this will automatically lead to a dangerous situation in the areas nearing the border.

However, apart from these two issues as also the difference on the action on climate change, there has been substantial progress in the bilateral relations between the two countries. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reviewed the bilateral relations during her visit to India in July this year and jointly announced a new agenda on science and technology, health, strategic coperation, energy and climate change. Further, there were increased cooperation in trade, investment and agriculture. This July dialogue will be reviews by the two leaders so that the roadmap is maintained and there can be a bigger push taking into the scope for higher collaboration between the two countries.

As regards the follow-up on the civil nuclear cooperation, the 123 agreement was formally signed between the two governments on October 10, 2008 in Washington and at present the two countries are working to establish regulatory and legal framework to implement the 123 agreement. A US civil nuclear trade delegation led by the United States India Business Council visited India in August 2009, and already India has decided to set up nuclear parks in two states for the US companies. India will like the US to do the work on its part speedily so that the spirit of the civil nuclear cooperation is kept.

As regards trade and investment, there has been a good movement. Bilateral trade in goods and merchandise in 2008 stood at US$ 44.4 billion with exports from India standing at US$ 25.7 billion and imports from US at $18.6 billion. In addition, India exported IT and IT enabled services worth US$ 25 billion to the US in 2008(60 per cent of total IT exports).Bilateral trade in goods and services accordingly stood at US$69.4 billion making the US the largest trading partner of India.As of now, the US is the largest foreign investor in India and the US-bound investment of the Indian companies also has been rising at a brisk pace in the recent years.

The issue of defence and security cooperation will also come up in the talks between the two leaders. Indian Home Minister visited the US in September this year and discussed strengthening cooperation in the field of counter terrorism and security. India-US defence ties under the new framework for US-India defence relationship signed in 2005 have been progressing well. Conduct of regular exercises, exchange of defence experts under various technical programmes have led to better understanding between the forces of both sides. During the visit of Mrs. Clinton, the two sides agreed to a standard formulation on end use monitoring arrangement to facilitate the sale of US defence equipment to India.

Energy is another issue where India and the US are ready to collaborate in a big way. Both the governments have identified energy as the focus area of bilateral cooperation. India-US energy dialogue launched in 2005 held the third meeting of its steering committee in April 2008 in New Delhi and under the dialogue, working groups have been created on oil and natural gas, coal, power and energy efficiency as also new technologies and renewable energy. US solar companies are exploring the possibility of investing in solar farms in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

As regards science and technology partnership,an Indo-US science and technology endowment fund and broad agreement was signed on July 20, 2009 and this bilateral agreement is quite comprehensive. The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a future cooperation between the two agencies in exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. This collaboration has expanded and the ISRO has been supplying to NASA very useful inputs as a part of this bilateral understanding.(IPA)