Burns, Menon to meet in Delhi

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, the chief US negotiator of the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, will have his first face-to-face interaction with the new Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, when Burns visits New Delhi beginning the week of November 6, officials told rediff.com.

Burns has already had telephone conversations with Menon since the latter took over from Shyam Saran --who will continue to be India's point man for the nuclear deal-- last month, but is yet to meet personally with Menon, who was earlier India's High Commissioner to Pakistan.

Officials here are confident that Burns and Menon will hit it off and develop the kind of rapport that Burns and Saran had exuded over the past two years and more than half-a-dozen meetings as the chief interlocutors of the nuclear deal.

Burns will visit Islamabad, New Delhi and Kabul during a one-week swing through the region to continue the strategic dialogue between the US and these three countries. This was part of a broader strategic partnership Washington envisages with each of these nations as partners in the global war on terror to democratic allies, the officials noted.