Menon to discuss Hu Jintao's visit with US counterpart

NEW DELHI: National security adviser Shivshankar Menon will kick off India's high level talks with the US after the Obama visit, with his maiden meeting with his US counterpart Tom Donilon later this week.
Menon travels to Washington on Wednesday in a low-key but, sources say, high content visit. His visit comes just about a week after China's president Hu Jintao made his state trip to Washington.China and the Hu visit will likely figure high in the talks between Menon and Donilon. So will Afghanistan.
The India-US strategic dialogue between US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and foreign minister SM Krishna is slated for April. Clinton and US defence secretary Robert Gates are due to travel to Delhi in April for the dialogues. These will take off from where the Obama visit left off.
The general approach in India is that things will remain more of the same in Afghanistan this year. Though the US is committed to starting a withdrawal this year, the actual deadline has moved to 2014.
Meanwhile, the war has decisively shifted to Pakistan which, according to Indian observers, is going down a slippery slope towards radicalism. That's a source of huge concern to both India and the US, but India certainly finds less and less leverage inside Pakistan.
On the China front, Menon is also expected to brief the US side on Wen Jiabao's recent visit, India's continuing apprehension about stapled visas, trade access, etc. India will also expect a full debriefing on the Hu visit to Washington.