The United States was ready to cooperate with India in tackling the menace of Naxals if New Delhi made such a request, Robert Blake, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said on Wednesday.

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not requested assistance on Naxal threat, but we will be pleased to cooperate on such issues,” Blake said in an online chat with journalists on the eve of the start of Indo-US strategic dialogue.

The main purpose of the strategic dialogue was to think big and think strategically, Blake said, adding: “Indo-US relationship is one of the defining partnerships in the 21st century.”

As External Affairs Minister S M Krishna meets his US counterpart Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday for the inaugural round of strategic dialogue, experts say that both sides have a lot at stake. Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and minister of state of science and technology Prithviraj Chavan would join Krishna for the talks along with top-notch officials of different ministries.

“The new dialogue with India on strategic issues is meant to lessen the trust deficit and to enhance the relationship in new direction both in quantitative and qualitative ways,” Prof. Chintamani Mahapatra, Chairperson, American Studies Centre, JNU, told Governance Now.

In the changing global scenario it was a new era of understanding; it seemed that any dialogue had to be strategic and must include a wide range of subjects, Mahapatra said. "In fact, the two sides are eager to move more on broadbased engagement on a number of areas, such as infrastructure, communications and information technology, healthcare services, educational services, energy, environmental friendly technology sectors, apart from normal exchange on defence-security tie and other issues related to India’s neighbourhood."

Education is also one of the focal point of cooperation in the context of the proposed foreign education bill that will allow foreign direct investment in the Indian education sector. The two sides are likely to discuss operationalisation of Obama-Singh Knowledge Initiative aimed at increasing university linkages, faculty exchanges, and so on.

Washington is also likely to broach the nuclear liability legislation, which is currently being considered by the Parliament. Blake said that the bill that would be passed by the parliament should be consistent with international standards.

Mahapatra said that US was deeply interested in the issue because US companies would be able to set up their plants in India only after the passage of the nuclear liability bill. “There are many parliamentarians who think that India is giving too much to the American companies. I think it should allow its own time to pass in the parliament so that future relations between two countries will be robust and doubt free. It took so long for the US Congress to pass the legislation on the Indo-US civilian nuclear bill,” he added.

Climate change -- seen as a litmus test of the bilateral relations -- is also expected to prominently figure in the talks.

There had been a lot of misgivings on climate change initiatives taken by India in the United States, Anjali Jaiswal, Co-director, India Initiative of the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), a US-based NGO that works on environment, told Governance Now. “India is perhaps taking right kind of initiatives in the environment and climate change areas. We are part of communicating and documenting that message to the US leaders because there seems to be a gap on this matter,” Jaiswal added. 

But there remains concern despite high pedestal cooperation – the US is not committing on India’s aspiration for the permanent membership to the United Nation Security Council (UNSC). Washington considers New Delhi to be central for the UNSC reforms. The strategic dialogue gives perfect opportunity for India to pitch for its candidature once again, Robinder Sachdeva, director of India affairs at the US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), a group which lobbies for the enhancement of relations between India and US told Governance Now.

Also, the talks are likely to focus on subjects like areas of dissonance Af-Pak policy, Pakistan efforts on containing terror groups on its soil and counter-terrorism cooperation between the two sides.

The broad consensus in the strategic dialogue will take relations forward and will lay foundation of Obama’s visit to India later this year, commented Sachdeva. “The current administration is looking relations at 360 degree relations with New Delhi and it is also Obama style of engagement on broad framework on several issues.”

Such is the level of cooperation that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, William Burns, said at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank that Indo-US Strategic Dialogue has elevated India to the rank of America’s top global partner.

The US President is also personally looking at inaugural strategic dialogue as there is a chance of Obama attending Clinton’s reception to Krishna.