Rocca arrives in New Delhi

US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday to prepare the ground for negotiations of Phase II of the 'Next Steps in Strategic Partnership' for facilitating high-technology trade.

Rocca held preliminary talks with external affairs ministry officials and later met Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

She will hold talks on Thursday with her Indian interlocutor S Jaishankar, joint secretary, MEA, which will be the first meeting of the implementation group of Phase I of NSSP.

Officials said this group would have a "broader scope and application" and discuss steps of implementing the "understandings" of NSSP-I.

The two sides had concluded the first phase of the NSSP last month before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with President George W Bush in New York, under which ISRO was removed from a restrictive list.

By this month-end, the US is expected to post a commerce department official in New Delhi on a "permanent basis" to help coordinate high-technology trade and ensure that technologies transferred to India are used in the manner they are licensed for.

This official will help US companies understand the opportunities in high technology sector in India and also help Indian companies understand US export control systems and requirements.

Rocca's visit takes place within days of talks here by US Under Secretary in the Commerce Department Kenneth Juster, who came for the meeting of the Indo-US High Technology Cooperation Group.

The two sides had identified new ideas for collaboration in biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced information technology and defence technology, especially in view of the more liberalised licensing regime envisaged under the NSSP process.

New Delhi has viewed positively Washington easing restrictions related to supply of equipment and technology for India's civilian space and nuclear programmes.

Representatives from the commerce and defence departments accompany Rocca.