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India, US pledge to intensify bilateral relations

India and the United States have pledged to strengthen bilateral relations as envisaged in the Indo-US vision statement that was signed during former US President Bill Clinton's visit to New Delhi.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha who met with US Treasury Secretary Paul H O'Neill on his arrival in Washington on Friday, held discussions on economic and financial relations between the two countries as finalised last year, an Indian Embassy spokesman said.

Sinha also extended an invitation to O'Neill to visit India, which was accepted.

Their deliberations also covered greater opportunities for US trade and investment in India in the context of the second- generation economic reforms being implemented by it, an Indian Embassy spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the IMF director Horst Kohler has said that India's economic growth was 'strong and stable' and this could go up to 8 per cent or more with better structural reforms.

"I am indeed happy that growth is strong and stable in China and India," Kohler told a press conference in Washington.

"The issue of growth in India is, of course, an issue of implementing further structural reforms. I think Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and the government is absolutely on the right track to have defined structural reforms as the major vehicle to lift up this growth rate of 5 to 6 per cent to, maybe, 8 per cent or even more.

"It is possible. More growth is needed to find a decisive breakthrough against poverty. So, I think the commitment to reforms should now be implemented into action on a broad scale and I am sure the authorities know about that and are ambitious for that," Kohler said.

Sinha is in Washington to attend the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.

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