Menon to undertake maiden visit to US after becoming FS

New Delhi, Feb 19 (UNI) Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will pay a four-day official visit to the US from February 21-24 to co-Chair the Fifth Meeting of the Indo-US High Technology Cooperation Group and have discussions with US officials on a wide range of bilateral matters.

The Meeting, to be chaired by Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson from the US side, will include industry and government sessions on the four focus areas of information technology, bio-technology, nano-technology and defence technology.

During his visit, the Foreign Secretary will also have a series of meetings with US officials with whom he is engaged in the wide range of areas of bilateral work.

These include the current agenda of India-US bilateral cooperation, the roadmap ahead, and regional and global issues of common concern.

This will be his first visit to United States as Foreign Secretary. The Foreign Secretary will meet his US counterpart, Under Secretary Nicholas Burns, on February 21 and call on officials in the Departments of State, Commerce, Agriculture, Energy, Defence and the National Security Council.

Mr Burns had visited India from December 6-9, 2006.

UNI