Washington: Acknowledging India's emergence as a global player, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says how New Delhi can "play not just a regional role but a global one as well" would top her agenda on her India trip.
"We believe India has a tremendous opportunity and a growing responsibility, which they acknowledge, to play not just a regional role but a global one as well," she said on Wednesday in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.
"How they choose to define, that we will explore in-depth during the course of our discussion," Clinton said ahead of what she described as a "very broad, comprehensive dialogue" with India during her five-day visit beginning on Friday.
"It's the most wide-ranging that I think has ever been put on the table between India and the United States," Clinton said.
"It has six pillars to it, one of which, of course, is foreign policy, strategic challenges, along with, you know, other matters like health, and education, and agriculture and the economy."
US would welcome Indian leadership and involvement in a number of difficult areas including non-proliferation, she said.
"Anybody who ever read Strobe Talbott's book, Engaging India, knows that it's a very difficult issue. But, we want to look at new ways for global and regional regimes on weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear."
Clinton said US was also very interested in the role that India sees for itself in the immediate area like Sri Lanka and "military and particularly naval implications of decisions that India is making going forward."
Washington was also interested in the economic actions that India is taking and "what are they going to do to keep generating growth, lifting people out of poverty", she said noting, "they weathered the beginning of the recession better than many places."
US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern will be accompanying her, Clinton said, to discuss issues relating to clean energy and climate change.
India and China have understandable questions about what role they should be expected to play in any kind of new global climate change regime, she said. But "it is our hope that we can, through dialogue, come up with some win-win approaches."
Clinton said she was excited about the trip and looked forward to her meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and others in India.
"So, I think that this is an extremely rich area. I've just touched the surface of it," she said pledging that "we're going to do everything we can to broaden and deepen our engagement."
Mumbai police gear up for Hillary Clinton's visit
Meanwhile,as a gesture of support to India's fight against terrorism the US Secretary of State will stay at the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, one of the sites targeted during the 26/11 terror attacks last year, as she begins her official trip to India from Mumbai, this Friday.
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The Mumbai police consider Clinton's decision to stay there as "very symbolic" considering that the venue is at the heart of the sites targeted during 26/11, a top police official said.
"It is heartening that the dignitary will stay there. Of course, we are making all adequate security arrangements for her stay in the city," Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi told IANS on Thursday.
While declining to go into the details of the security set-up planned for Clinton, Raghuvanshi said that various national and US agencies have "been interacting" with the Mumbai police for some time.
It is expected that the Mumbai police and ATS will be assisted by the Rapid Action Force, State Reserve Police Force, Traffic Police, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad, the Dog Squad, and other state and central intelligence agencies in the 24x7 security detail lined up for Clinton.
High security shall be deployed on all the roads in south Mumbai where Clinton is expected to travel during her local engagements.
Although a spokesperson for the American Centre here said that Clinton's programme in Mumbai is "not yet finalised," it is widely expected that her engagements could include brief visits to a couple of terror attack sites and meeting some of the victims.
In close proximity to the Taj Hotel are other major terror-strike sites like Hotel Trident-Oberoi, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the Nariman House in Colaba where a synagogue was targeted, and the Cama Hospital, where top cops like Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar were gunned down in encounters with terrorists.
The sole terrorist captured alive during the terror attacks, Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab of Pakistan, is housed in the Arthur Road Jail, barely five km from the Taj Hotel.
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