Skip to footer

Kerry in India to push trade ties

The Secretary of State is in the country in advance of a visit next month by President Obama to lay the groundwork for increased cooperation.

  • By Matthew Lee Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in India to attend an international investment conference and push trade ties with the giant South Asian nation ahead of visit by President Barack Obama later this month.

Kerry arrived in the capital of Gujarat state, Ahmedabad, on Sunday to lead the U.S. delegation to the Vibrant Gujarat Investment Summit. The gathering seeks to promote responsible sustainable development.

India's prime minister will open the conference and Kerry will see him to discuss plans for Obama's upcoming trip to participate in India's annual Republic Day ceremonies.

In Ahmedabad, Kerry will also hold talks with the prime minister of the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, a rare cabinet-level meeting between the two nations.

Kerry stopped briefly in Germany on Saturday to meet with the ailing ruler of Oman, the Mideast country that's served an important intermediary role in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Kerry spent about 90 minutes with Sultan Qaboos bin Said, 74, who has been receiving medical treatment in Germany since November. Kerry later tweeted that he was "grateful for strong friendship" with the sultan.

Among the topics they covered were the Iran talks, which are set to resume this coming week in Switzerland; the situation in Yemen; the Syrian civil war; the terrorist attacks in Paris; and tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

Oman hosted several secret meetings between U.S. and Iranian officials in the months leading up to an interim nuclear deal in November 2013.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Kerry in India to push trade ties
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0111/Kerry-in-India-to-push-trade-ties
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe