US sees India as partner in addressing global challenges

The US has identified India as a major emerging global power along with Russia, China and Turkey, with whom it wants to build a partnership to address the global challenges like climate change, terrorism, recession and non-proliferation.     

"We will put special emphasis on encouraging major and emerging global powers: China, India, Russia and Brazil, as well as Turkey, Indonesia and South Africa to be full partners in tackling the global agenda," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday.     

"I want to underscore the importance of this task and my personal commitment to it. These States are vital to achieving solutions to the shared problems and advancing our priorities, non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, economic growth, climate change among others," she added.     

"With these states, we will stand firm on our principles even as we seek common ground," Clinton said in a major foreign policy speech at the Council on Foreign Affairs, a Washington-based think-tank, on the eve of her trip to India and Thailand.     

During her travel to India this week, Clinton shared she and her Indian counterpart S M Krishna will lay out a broad-based agenda that calls for a whole of government approach to the bilateral relationship.

Later this month, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would join her to lead the US new strategic and economic dialogue with China. "It will cover not just economic issues but the range of strategic challenges we face together," she said.     

In the fall, she would travel to Russia to advance the bi-national presidential commission that she and her Russian counterpart will co-chair.     

"The fact of these and other meetings does not guarantee results but they set in motion processes and relationships that will widen our avenues of cooperation and narrow the areas of disagreement without allusion. We know that progress will not likely come quickly or without bumps in the road, but we are determined to begin and stay on this path," Clinton explained.     

Observing that America's global and regional institutions were built for a world that has been transformed, she argued they too must be transformed and reformed.     

"As the president said following the recent G-8 meeting in Italy, we are seeking institutions that combine the efficiency and capacity for action with inclusiveness from the UN to the World Bank, from the IMF to the G-8 and the G-20, from the AOS and the Summit of the Americas to ASEAN and APEC, all of these and other institutions have a role to play."     

"But their continued vitality and relevance depend on their legitimacy and representativeness and the ability of their members to act swiftly and responsibly when problems arise," the Secretary of State said.