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Indo-US trade ties: Geithner to visit India on April 6

April 01, 2010 12:52 IST

Timothy Geithner US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner -- who spent part of his nomadic childhood in Mumbai -- will visit India on April 6-7 for the first time as treasury secretary to launch the US-India economic and financial partnership.

On April 6, Geithner, along with India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will launch in New Delhi the US-India economic and financial partnership, which was announced by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during the latter's state visit to Washington, DC in November.

While in New Delhi, Geithner will also meet with Dr Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the National Planning Commission.

On April 7, the treasury secretary will visit Mumbai to have interactions with a cross-section of India's leading business leaders and also US representatives of Fortune 500 companies doing business in India.

The department of treasury while announcing Geithner's trip to India, said, "The newly formed partnership aims to strengthen bilateral engagement and understanding in macroeconomic, financial sector and infrastructure related issues."

Donald Kohn, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, will accompany Geithner.

When President Obama and Dr Singh had announced the initiative, Geithner had said that 'India is an emerging global power and a country with which the US has an increasingly important economic and financial relationship.'

"I look forward to working closely with my Indian counterparts through the partnership to advance cooperation on the growing number of economic issues of interest to our two nations," he said.

Image: Timothy Geithner

Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC