“We have said that ‘yes, we are ready for it. We are in favour,'” Anand Sharma told reporters after meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and other U.S. officials.

Sharma said there was no date for the first round of talks on the pact, which would set terms and condition for U.S. and Indian investment in each other’s country.

“No, it was discussed today, and we have signaled our acceptance,” Sharma said.

The United States and China agreed this week to restart talks on a bilateral investment treaty, a move welcomed by the U.S. business community as a sign of new Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to economic reform.

U.S. business groups have been anxious for a similar commitment from India and were disappointed when a date for talks was not announced after Secretary of State John Kerry visited the country in late June.

Although the United States runs a far larger trade deficit with China than with India, India has in some ways replaced China this year as the No. 1 target of complaints from the U.S. business community and members of Congress.

In recent months, there has been a stream of letters from business groups and lawmakers complaining about Indian policies they say discriminate against American firms or undermine U.S. intellectual property rights, especially for pharmaceuticals.

Sharma told reporters that India was far more welcoming of American business than the current perception, but admitted it must do more to get that message across.

He also said there was no reason the United States and India could not meet the U.S.-India Business Council’s goal of boosting bilateral trade in goods and services to $500 billion annually by 2020 “if we make a real effort.”

Current two-way trade of about $106 billion annually is much below the potential, Sharma said.

On other issues, Sharma said the United States and India had agreed to work together to ensure that the December meeting of the World Trade Organization in Bali was a success.

“We have agreed to put together a work program. Our chief negotiators, senior officials and our ambassadors in Geneva will meet to discuss so there is a broad consensus around the key issues of trade facilitation and food security,” he said.

“We will work very closely with all our partners … with the United States of America, other principle stakeholders, the key countries, to ensure the outcome is a positive one.”

NEW DELHI: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged fast-growing India to work with the United States on global warming before it’s too late. “The irreversible climate challenge is speeding towards us, crying out for a global solution, ” he said.

Kerry spoke on climate change in a speech in New Delhi, the second stop on his two-week swing through the Mideast and Asia, just two days before President Barack Obama is to unveil his long-awaited plan for the United States on the issue.

“The world’s largest democracy and its oldest one must do more together, uniting not as a threat to anyone, not as a counterweight to a region or some other countries, but as partners building a strong, smart future in a critical age,” Kerry said in a reference to how India is often viewed as a counterbalance to China.

People consulting with White House officials on Obama’s plan say they expect the president to put forth regulations on heat-trapping gases emitted by coal-fired power plants that are already running. Environmental groups have been pleading with Obama to take that step, but the administration has said it’s focused first on controls on new power plants.

More than half of India’s power comes from coal and while the U.S. has emission issues of its own, it wants to see India and other nations in the region rely less on old, coal generation facilities. The U.S. is backing a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline that would bring energy to a power-starved region.

Speaking at a convention center to a crowd of several hundred businessmen, students and others, Kerry noted that federal scientists in May reported that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 400 parts per million — a level never before experienced by man.

“When the desert is creeping into East Africa, and ever more scarce resources push farmers and herders into deadly conflict … then this is a matter of shared security for all of us. … When the Himalayan glaciers are receding, threatening the very supply of water to almost a billion people, we all need to do better,” he said.

During his first trip to India as secretary of state, the top U.S. diplomat was expected to discuss a myriad of other topics, including enhancing security in the region and prospects for finding a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan.

As NATO troops leave, India fears the country could fall into the hands of a Taliban-led regime, endangering many of India’s interests there. Kerry reassured India, which has invested more than $2 billion to reconstruct Afghanistan, that the U.S. commitment to the Afghan people will not end at the close of next year when NATO-led combat troops complete their withdrawal.

In meetings before Kerry heads to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the U.S. expects Indian officials will want to query Kerry about prospects for peace talks with the Taliban. U.S. talks were scheduled to begin in coming days, but a last-minute diplomatic rift over how the Taliban rolled out their new political office in Doha, Qatar, has threatened to scuttle the talks.

“Obviously, we are very realistic about the difficulties of making progress. Making peace is never easy, and a final settlement may be long in coming,” he said.