US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to visit India

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to arrive in India tonight. Parikshit Luthra explains what is on the agenda. India is going to try and allay all of the concerns of the US on reciprocity, on the trade deficit, on e-commerce and data localisation.

This is the first high-level engagement between India and the US. Mike Pompeo will be arriving between 9 pm and 10 pm. Tomorrow is the main day and he will practically spend the entire day at Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan or the ministry to external affairs. He would have a lengthy meeting with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

According to sources, one should not expect too many deliverables or MoUs from this visit because this is a meeting for both leaders that is Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Mike Pompeo to get to know each other and sources also say this is a relationship that India would be investing a lot in.

A lot of issues have been cropping in over the last few days regarding eCommerce, data localisation, all those issues will come up in that meeting tomorrow but sources are also saying that this is probably a meeting that is more appropriate for the US trade representative and the commerce ministry and those deliberations are ongoing.