Describing India as a "rising global power", the US said on Thursday that it needed to forge closer cooperation with it in meeting challenges in South Asian region, including securing Afghanistan.
In her opening remarks at the launch of the first-ever Indo-US strategic dialogue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated her country's support for India's aspirations for permanent seat in the expanded UN Security Council, saying its rise would "certainly be a factor in any future consideration of the reforms" of the world body.
During the dialogue with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, the two sides vowed to strengthen cooperation in security, military, nuclear energy, climate change, education and agriculture.
Hailing India's contribution towards rebuilding of Afghanistan, she sought to allay "doubts" that the US sees India only in the "context" of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"In this dialogue, we will confront regional issues, most importantly securing Afghanistan's future. India and the US and countries of the world have a stake in Afghanistan and India's contribution to Afghanistan's future, including 1.3 billion dollar assistance have been positive and significant," Clinton said.
"India is a rising global power and already a regional power in Asia. Thus more the need to work closely with India to meet the immediate challenges in the neighborhood including Afghanistan," she said.
"India and the US must play a leading role in shaping the destiny of the 21st century," he said.
Krishna noted that the institution of the strategic dialogue was a reflection of the deepening and broadening of our relations between the two countries.
"We both have an abiding interest in a stable international order and in the maintenance of peace and stability in Asia and beyond, and a tremendous opportunity is now before us to work together to achieve this objective," he said.
Clinton said there are doubts among some people in India that the United States is not paying enough attention to New Delhi and at the same time there is a doubt among some in the US that India is not embracing its new role.
"With this strategic dialogue, the two countries would confront these issues directly and candidly," she said.
In her unusually lengthy speech -- lasting more than 13 minutes -- Clinton touched upon a wide range of issues from counter-terrorism to climate change, clean energy, food security, international security, bilateral cooperation in the education sector, the civilian nuclear deal and went on to praise India's role in Afghanistan.
She assured the Indian delegation that the US is well aware of India's concerns in the region, Afghanistan in particular and would work with New Delhi to address those.
Noting that both India and the US have been "seared by acts of terrorism", Clinton said security is the top priority between the two countries.
She said the two countries would have to increase their cooperation in counter-terrorism by better intelligence sharing and training first responders to make "our own homelands safer".
The secretary of state said the US is committed to modernisation of Indian military and referred to the little known fact that the US has the largest number of its military exercises with India.
Observing that the government to government ties is lagging behind the people to people relationship, Clinton said it is time that "New Delhi and Washington" must catch up with "New York and Mumbai." Krishna said the global nature of the security challenges being faced today, particularly the threat posed by transnational terrorism, requires the two countries to cooperate more closely than ever before. "Though the epicenter of this threat lies in India's neighborhood, it reaches far and wide all across the world as we have seen time and again and most recently a few weeks back in Times Square," he said in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
"Given the fact that the groups who preach the ideology of hatred and violence are increasingly coalescing, sharing resources and operating as one, it is incumbent upon all of us, to focus our efforts laser-like on every one ofthem," he said. Targeting only one or other of such groups would only provide false comfort in the short term and will not usher in long term stability," he said. The two leaders were seated at the head of the conference room with the delegations of the two countries seated in an intermingled format on either side of the table. The leaders of the two delegations appeared to be in a relaxed mood, smiling and chatting with each other; unlike during the previous two such US dialogues with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the last two months; thus reflecting the comfort level between the officials of the two countries.
Besides Krishna, other members of the Indian delegation are HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Prithviraj Chavan, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. The US delegation included Energy Secretary Steven Chu; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and Deputy National Security Adviser Michale Froman.
Image: Foreign Minister S M Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the state department on Thursday | Photograph: Paresh Gandhi
