Mukherjee, Geithner aim for complementary growth of India & US

GEITHNER-MUKHERJEE
From Lalit K Jha
Washington (PTI) - As Indian Defence Minister, he
inked a game-changing defence pact with the US, as Foreign
Minister, he signed the historic India-US civil nuclear deal
and now as Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee is all set to
put India and the US on the path of a "strategic economic"
relationship.
This strategic economic relationship would not be of
competition, unlike that with other countries, but would be
complementing the growth and development of each other,
officials familiar with the talks between the two largest
democratic countries of the world said.
Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived here on Monday to attend
the second annual meeting of the India-US Economic and
Financial Partnership, is all set to lay the groundwork for a
new era of trade and economic partnership with the United
States, officials said.
Though no formal agreements or memorandum of
understandings are to scheduled to be signed during the
day-long talks, officials asserted that the indications so far
are that the talks could result in a path-breaking economic
relationship between the two countries, following in the
footsteps of what Mukherjee did to the India-US relationship
when he was the country's Defence Minister and then the
External Affairs Minister.
This is the first time that an Indian Finance Minister is
travelling to the United States with half a dozen top
officials -- Governor of the Reserve Bank of India D Subbarao,
Secretary of Economic Affairs R Gopalan, Secretary of
Financial Services Shashikant Sharma, Chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Board of India U K Sinha; Chairman of
the Forward Market Commission B C Khatua and Chief Economic
Advisor Kaushik Basu.
In an unprecedented gesture, the Obama Administration too
has lined up its top financial and economic officials.
Led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who spent
most part of the first 20 years of his life in India, the
other top US officials to attend the Second Annual US-India
Economic and Financial Partnership include Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission
Chairman Mary Schapiro, US Commodity and Futures Trading
Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, Federal Deposit Insurance
Commission Vice-Chairman Gruenberg and National Economic
Council Director Gene Sperling.
"The comprehensive inter-agency representation on both
sides makes this the highest-level economic meeting ever
between our two nations, demonstrating the vision and
commitment in both countries for ever-deepening economic
partnership," a senior Treasury Official said.
Ahead of the talks, Geithner and Mukherjee made a joint
appearance at a panel discussion organised by the
Confederation of Indian Industry and the Brooking Institute.
Geithner said the growth of India was not posing any
danger to the United States.
In fact it complements the growth and economic
development of the US.
Geithner later hosted a dinner for Mukherjee, which was
attended by officials from both sides.
"We will discuss in detail how to expand relationship
between India and the US and also the other issues on which we
share common perception. One of the fundamentals principles of
our relationship is that we share many common values,"
Mukherjee said at the CII-Brookings panel discussion.