India is working towards on liberalising visa norms for American scholars while the US would liberalise its visa regime for Indian professionals, especially nurses. This will include, dispensing with the annual personal attendance requirement for American executives and process visas of scholars at the Indian embassy itself. The US, on the other hand, will address issues related to the required visa categories, including H-1B.

Addressing a high-level bilateral meet, assistant to the US President for Economic Policy, Allan B Hubbard said in New York, “Visas will not be more than a few days’ wait.” According to MEA sources, Hubbard was addressing a meeting of India-US Economic dialogue co-chaired by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Hubbard mentioned that US Ambassador to India David C Mulford had played a good role in resolving most of the visa-related issues between the two countries. “I should say, David wrestled with the bureaucracy back home and made it happen,” Hubbard told the delegation.

Explaining India’s position, India’s Foreign Secretary SS Menon told the US officials that a new visa policy would be announced soon which would provide for processing of all visa applications by the US scholars in the embassy. “US executives would get a three-year visa, formalities would be cut down and they would be spared from annual personal appearance at the foreigners registration office,” he said.

The Indian delegation included Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, Commerce Secretary G K Pillai and Secretary for Financial Services Vinod Rai. The US government representatives included Commerce Secretary Carlos M Gutierrez, US Trade Representative Susan C Schwab and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R Nicholas Burns.   nation.

Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Massimo D’ Alema, has called for stronger ties between India and Europe as a precondition to effective multilateral governance. Speaking at the Indian Council for World Affairs in New Delhi on ‘Italy’s foreign policy and future of India-Europe relations’, the Deputy PM touched upon five important areas—international crisis, global economic governance, energy security and climate change, non-proliferation regime, and closer ties between Europe and India. He said that these points were vital for converting a developing relation into a stronger partnership.

In his opening remarks, the minister expressed concern over global warming and spoke of defining the role that the international community has to play. Referring to the post-Kyoto agreement on climate change, he said, “We all know that the commitment that the EU has recently undertaken is not adequate until a global agreement emerges in which the US, China, Brazil, and India are active partners.”

D’ Alema is of the view that the global governance is a multi-pronged affair. On reforming the UN Security Council, the minister offered an alternative formula. “I see the G-8 as a very important framework where issues and opportunities can be discussed and decided at the highest level.” Calling for expansion of G-8, he said, “Expansion of G-8 should be considered in order to improve the cross regional effectiveness. And in my opinion, new members from Asia, like India, from Arab World, from North and South America, should be added.”

The minister also wanted India-Italy as well as India-Europe to work side-by-side to add strength to the multilateral mechanism. D’Alema noted that the future of the Middle East was decisive not only for regional security but also for the stability of the international system as a whole.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollagama has stated that his country is “working on a new policy for settling all political conflicts including the ethnic issue bothering us for long.” Speaking at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondent Club of South Asia (FCC) in New Delhi, the minister categorically expressed the readiness to garner support from all countries, in this regard.

“We would explain our problems to the world at large and we would like to bring everything to the level of a final solution”, said Bogollagama, referring to the current unrest in the island country, which has set the militant LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka at loggerheads.

Bogollagama reiterated that the Sri Lankan government is all for a settlement. But he stressed on cooperation, consensus, and consultation among all political representatives in the country. “We honour political pluralism without any racial division. In fact we even have a Muslim party in our cabinet”, said Bogollagama.

Rebuffing all charges of violations of human rights allegedly by the country’s security forces against aid workers and human rights activists, Bogollagama stated that his government had invited several commissions to look into the matter.

On the question of economic growth, the Sri Lankan minister said, “Impact of militancy on the country’s economy has never been a major problem.” He highlighted the rapid economic growth in the country and claimed that the country’s GDP growth has been 7.3 percent last year against 5.6 percent recorded in the year before. The Sri Lankan minister stated the country is expecting 8 percent GDP growth this year.

India’s minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Murli Deora held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Chad, Ethiopia, and Comoros to accelerate and expand cooperation in various activities in the hydrocarbon sector.

In a separate meeting with Emmanuel Nadingar, Ministre du Petrole from Chad, the two leaders discussed possibilities of India’s assistance to chalk out exploration acreages and other technical services in the Energy & Petroleum (E&P) sector. Training of petroleum sector personnel in upstream and downstream was also discussed during the meeting. The Indian side elaborated investment potential by oil PSUs in the overseas ventures, which could support development of the hydrocarbon industry of Chad.

In the meeting with Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Mines and Energy of Ethiopia, the two leaders explored possibilities of cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Indian side suggested that Engineers India Limited (EIL) be utilized in engineering and other services. Similar assistance was also offered in the largely unexplored E&P sector of Ethiopia along with utilising Indian expertise in setting up a refinery in the country. The Indian side offered its assistance in developing a pipeline network along with building infrastructure for transportation of LNG in smaller quantities to the places, which are not connected by pipelines. The Ethiopian minister showed keen interest in India’s ethanol blended petrol programme and enquired about the progress in bio diesel production in the country.

In his meeting with the Minister of Energy, Mine, Industry and Handicraft of Comoros Houmadi Abdallah, Deora explained the Indian capabilities and the potential areas of cooperation between enterprises of the two countries. He pointed out that India is keen to take forward cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector between the two countries. It was explained that EIL has capabilities in engineering and technical consultancy services in refinery operations, turn around maintenance and de-bottlenecking studies, amongst others.

The bilateral meeting with Ghana, which was held at the official level, focused on possibilities of developing CNG facilities in Ghana by GAIL. It was stated that the refinery expansion project planned by Ghana offers another area of cooperation in which EIL could assist in engineering and technical consultancy services. The refinery presently has a capacity of about 2 million tonnes per annum (MMTPA), which Ghana intends to raise to 5 MMTPA. Ghana also conveyed its interest in importing finished petroleum products from India as India has surplus refining capacity.

The second Kazakhstan-India Tourism and Travel Fair was held in New Delhi on 18 October. Officials from the Tourism ministry and representatives of various travel agencies of both countries attended the fair.

The fair was organised to mark the celebrations of the 15th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and India. The Embassy of Kazakhstan in association with Air Astana, National Carrier of Kazakhstan, organised the fair. Launching the fair, Kazakh Ambassador Dr Kairat Umarov underlined the need for reinvigoration of tourist exchanges between Kazakhstan and India, whose economies have been on a rapid growth recently.

The Kazakh envoy called upon the Indian tourists to explore Kazakhstan and enjoy the hospitable environment. “Kazakhstan’s natural beauty, modern tourist infrastructure and proximity make it an excellent destination for Indian travellers”, he noted. Based on the long history of mutual interaction between the two nations for many ages, the importance of the revival of Silk Road for intensification of wide range cooperation was also underlined.