Secretary Kerry,

Secretary Pritzker,
My Ministerial colleague, Nirmala Sitharaman,
Friends from the media,
I am delighted to welcome Secretary Kerry and Secretary Pritzker in New Delhi for the second Strategic
and Commercial Dialogue between India and the United States.
In my meeting with Secretary Kerry, we had a very productive exchange of views on key bilateral,
regional and global issues. Let me begin with global issues.
Secretary Kerry and I discussed at length the issue of terrorism, which is the key challenge to the
international community, and the foremost threat to international peace and security. I am happy to
note that there was a "meeting of minds on this issue. I briefed Secretary Kerry on the continuing
problem of cross-border terrorism that India and the larger region faces from Pakistan. We both agreed
that nations must not maintain double standards, such as the categorization of good and bad terrorists,
nor must they act as sanctuaries and safe havens for terrorist organizations. We reaffirmed the urgent
necessity for Pakistan to dismantle safe havens for terrorists and criminal networks including Lashkar-eToiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and D Company. Secretary Kerry and I also agreed on the need for Pakistan to
do more to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice
quickly.
At the same time, Secretary Kerry and I spoke on the need to strengthen the international legal regime
to counter terrorism. We agreed on additional measures to strengthen our counter-terrorism
cooperation, specifically, to work for early operationalization of the Agreement on exchange of
information on known or suspected terrorists. We will also intensify intelligence sharing and continue to
work closely to get terrorist entities listed by the UN system, by coordinating our approach to the UN
1267 Committee.
We also had a detailed exchange of views on climate change and clean energy issues. Both our countries
attach high importance to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement, in the finalization of which
President Obama and Prime Minister Modi played key roles.
We have agreed to scale up our collaboration in clean energy and to quickly operationalize the various
initiatives that were announced during Prime Ministers visit to facilitate investments in this sector from
US into India. We look forward to working with the US to ensure the success of the International Solar
Alliance.
We also agreed to work together on the implementation of Agenda 2030, through its 17 Sustainable
Developmental Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are entirely consistent with many of our Governments flagship
domestic initiatives such as "Skill India, Make in India, "Swachch Bharat. Given the fact that we
account for 1/6th of humanity, success or failure in realizing Agenda 2030 or fulfilling the SDGs, will

depend on the success achieved in India.

I thanked Secretary Kerry for his reiteration of continued US support to Indias membership of the
Nuclear Suppliers Group and permanent membership of the UN Security Council. We both agreed that
Indias enhanced global role is in mutual interest.
We also had detailed discussions on the developments in our region, particularly Afghanistan. We have
agreed to work together to strengthen the National Unity Government in Afghanistan.
We have decided to widen our consultations to more effectively address the rapidly evolving regional
and global situation. We will hold consultations on Africa and on multilateral issues within this year. We
have also strengthened our cooperation in the area of peacekeeping. In this context, we recently
launched the first UN Peacekeeping Course for African partners in New Delhi. This is an apt symbol of
our partnership for peace, security and development in the wider world.
We have agreed to strengthen our cooperation in the area of maritime security. Our Trilateral with
Japan has moved from dialogue into action in key areas of regional connectivity and HA/DR.
On the bilateral side, our partnership now covers every aspect of human endeavour. In this context
there have been a series of sustained Ministerial exchanges in the areas of Defence, Finance, Urban
Development, Commerce & Industry, Power, Environment and Forests, Petroleum and Natural Gas
among others. More such exchanges are planned in the coming months.
I sought Secretary Kerrys support for resolution of long-pending issues of totalization and the fee hike
for H1B and L1 visa that impact our people-to-people exchanges, which is a vital source of strength for
our relationship.
Overall, our meeting today has contributed to our efforts to forge a closer partnership with the US in
pursuit of our development goals and strategic priorities. We are certain that the India-US partnership
will continue to benefit not only both our peoples but also become a factor for peace and stability in the
region and the wider world.