Civilian nuke business on agenda for Clinton on India trip

Five day visit to seal strategic ties with India

By Ravi Matah – Vancouverite India correspondent.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will talk civilian nuke business and strategic cooperation in military affairs and the threat of terrorism with Indian officials on her fist visit since assuming office.

With terrorism on the agenda, Clinton will be staying at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai which was the scene of carnage last year when Pakistan-based militants launched a bloody assault on city landmarks.

The purpose of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India is to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries, a top Obama Administration official said on Thursday.

Assistant Secretary for South Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake, briefing reporters ahead of Clinton’s departure, said the trip will “highlight the extensive cooperation that is already taking place between the non-governmental people both in India and the US”

“We arrive Friday night, so the first events will be Saturday. In Mumbai, she’s going to be doing some events with business people, she’ll do something with a local women’s association, and then she’ll have an event with a lot of youth who are doing volunteer work in their communities,” said Blake.

“In Delhi, as I said earlier, she’ll meet with her counterpart, Foreign Minister Krishna. She’ll, of course, have a meeting with the prime minister. She’ll see the head of the Congress Party Sonia Gandhi, and she’ll meet with the head of the opposition, L.K. Advani,” he added.

“In Delhi, she also plans some people-to-people events. She’ll do an event at a green building to highlight some of the possibilities for working together on clean energy and climate change. She’ll also have an event to showcase some of the cooperation that is taking place between our scientists, our agronomists, and our NGOs and foundations on agriculture. And then she’ll have an event at a local university that will be an interaction with students and so forth.”

“We believe that the strong showing of the Congress Party, Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh’s return to office, and then President Obama’s very strong support for strengthening ties with India really opened the way for a new and invigorated partnership between the US and India,” Blake said.

“Broadly speaking, what we are going to do is continue the successful cooperation we have had on things like defense, counter-terrorism, trade, while also forging new initiatives on things like agriculture, education, science and technology, and women’s empowerment,” he said.

The new US ambassador to India, Timothy John Tim Roemer, is arriving  a day before  Clinton begins her five-day India visit.

It is expected a broad range of agreements will be announced Monday including cooperation in the civilian use of nuclear power. India is expected to allocate two “nuclear parks” to enable U.S. companies to build reactors in two different Indian states.

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Posted by Ravi Matah on Jul 17 2009. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry