The India-US Forum of Parliamentarians (IUFP)has been formed to foster closer relations between India and the United States, the world's largest democracies. Constituted along the lines of the 'India Caucus' in the U.S. Congress, the IUFP involves Indian Parliamentarians from various political parties from both Houses of Parliament - the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

In recent years, the relationship has acquired new shape and substance and is being further strengthened by developing profoundly new patterns of collaboration. Both the countries, are today, engaged in diplomatic collaboration, counter terrorism efforts, defense and military-to-military cooperation, intelligence exchange, law enforcement, development assistance and the global environment. They are together exploring the frontier areas of science and technology, developing vaccine against communicable diseases, strengthening mutual capabilities in combating cyber crimes, and discussing ways to deal with transnational threats and proliferation of weapons of mass destructions. Information technology and the new knowledge economy are increasingly defining the story of their bilateral partnership.

Also, in the wake of the far - reaching and dramatic events such as the recent US military campaign in Iraq and the earlier military campaign in Afghanistan, the evolving Indo-American relationship is being further re-examined and redefined.

The Forum, formed at a very opportune time when the Indo-US relations are undergoing such significant transformation, acts as a bridge and helps further consolidate & promote the relationship between the two countries and in doing so, vigorously protects India's interests. The Forum also focuses on explosive issues such as terrorism of which India has been a victim for the past twenty years.

Besides examining issues from a bilateral focus such as terrorism, national security, nuclear nonproliferation, drug trafficking and human rights abuse, the Forum's 16 Sub-Committees under the leadership of various M.Ps deal with a wide range of bilateral issues, such as, promoting Trade & Commerce, cooperation in the areas of Information Technology, Immigration, Trade Policy, WTO, Defence, Power and other core sectors.

The Forum was formally launched on 27th March 2002 by the former External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh. Also present on the occasion were Co-chairman of the 'India Caucus' in the US Congress, Jim McDermott, Mr Frank Pallone, Co-founder of the 'India Caucus', and Mrs Najma Heptullah, the former Dy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha, amongst others.

The two Co-chairmen spearhead the Executive Committee. The current Co-chairmen are Mr. Murli Deora (INC) M.P., Rajya Sabha and Mr. B J Panda (BJD) M.P., Rajya Sabha. They took over the chairmanship from Mr. Kapil Sibal, MP and Mr. V P S Badnore respectively at the conclusion of their tenure in June 2004. Mr.Rajeev Shukla, (INC) M.P., Rajya Sabha is the convenor of the IUFP. The other Executive members are Mr Arun Jaitley (BJP) MP, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia (Congress) MP, Mr Lalit Suri (BJP) MP and Mr Vijay Mallya (Janata Party) MP. Well known Journalist Ramesh Chandran who was formally based in Washington DC is the Executive Director of the IUFP. He runs the operational aspects of the Forum.