The second round of the Indo-US Strategic Dialogue, co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, and the US Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, has been postponed in view of the Assembly elections in India and ongoing developments in West Asia and North Africa.

Scheduled to be held in the beginning of April, the dialogue will be now rescheduled for the earliest available opportunity, the Ministry of External Affairs said here today.

“In view of the state elections in India and ongoing developments in West Asia and North Africa, the two sides have decided to reschedule the Strategic Dialogue and will hold it at the earliest available opportunity. The date for the Strategic Dialogue will be decided through mutual consultation,” it said.

Acting as a principal mechanism for advancing bilateral cooperation across the full spectrum of the relationship between India and the US, the dialogue also provides an opportunity to both sides to exchange views on global and regional issues of mutual interest.

Giving details of the important bilateral events over the next few weeks, the Ministry said it will include visit of the Commerce Secretary to Washington, the meeting of the India-US Joint Working Group in Counter Terrorism on March 25 here.

Apart from this, the meeting of the High Technology Cooperation Group is scheduled in May here and the India-US Higher Education Summit in June 2011 in Washington.

The first Homeland Security Dialogue and the meeting of the Joint Working Group on Space Cooperation will also be scheduled in the coming weeks, the Ministry said.

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