John Kerry to visit India in June

America's top diplomat John Kerry will embark on his maiden India visit as the secretary of state to hold 4th Indo-United States strategic dialogue on June 24. Preparations or Kerry's visit were discussed by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told mediapersons.

The 3rd US-India Strategic Dialogue was held in Washington on June 13 last year and the two sides covered a range of issues including trade, countering terrorism, education, science and technology, clean energy and health.

Earlier, Sherman, who is on two-day trip to India, met with National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon to prepare for the 4th strategic dialogue.

She noted that Kerry's visit will be the first as the Secretary of State to India. "He (Kerry) is very much looking forward to that," said Sherman.

Kerry was appointed as US secretary of state in February. "It is really extraordinary, the depth and breadth of the India-US relationship and we look forward to furthering that relationship through the strategic dialogue and the many things that we do together."

We have been working at all levels throughout both of our governments on a number of projects dealing with global economics, global strategic security, energy, climate change, people-to-people regional cooperation, she said.

Sherman also noted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to visit the US at "some point in the near future, because this is a strong, powerful relationship and not only in the region but in the world".