US working with India to forge deep strategic ties: Clinton

I / Washington July 8, 2009, 11:25 IST

"Looking forward" to her first visit to India this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Obama Administration is working with New Delhi to create a "very deep and broad strategic engagement".

"I am very excited...I am very much looking forward to my trip next week," Clinton told reporters here yesterday about the tour which will be her first in the capacity of America's top diplomat. The dates of the visit are yet to announced.

The US officials are working hard with their Indian counterparts to create a "very deep and broad strategic engagement," the 61-year-old former First Lady said.

"It is my hope that we'll be able to announce our intentions when I'm in India, and that we will be cooperating and working together across the broadest range of concerns that our two governments have ever engaged on," she said.

Clinton expressed hope that the Indo-US relationship, "which has improved considerably over the last 15 years," continues on that path.

Recollecting memories of her maiden trip to India as the First Lady of the US, she said: "I was thrilled to go to India for the first time as first lady, and to begin a process that has led us to this point with the contributions of many along the way, that really demonstrate that the world's largest democracy and oldest democracy have so much more in common than, perhaps, was first recognised."