Clinton to start strategic dialogue on India trip

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said her trip to India later this week is intended to start a strategic dialogue on a wide range of issues including climate change and clean energy.

"I am going to India Thursday night for a couple of days of consultation. We are starting a strategic dialogue between myself and the new External Affairs Minister (S. M. Krishna)," she said in response to a question during a Town Hall meeting Monday at the US Agency for International Development.

Clinton, who is making her first visit to India as secretary of state, has said that the details of a new strategic partnership that would take the India-US relationship to the third level, or 'US-India 3.0', would be worked out during her New Delhi visit.

Referring to the recently concluded Major Economies Forum in Italy on climate change, she said the results were actually somewhat better than what the Obama administration had expected.

But with that they face the challenge of persuading India and China to figure out what they can do, and what obligations they will take on commensurate with their own development goals, she said.

"I think that there's a real role for development expertise in trying to come up with ideas - clean energy technology transfers, small-scale clean energy projects that can be upscaled in ways that the Chinese and the Indians would find attractive; looking at targets that can be met with increasing aid over time," Clinton said.

"You know climate change and clean energy are on there (on the agenda) but we need to be as specific as possible. So, any thoughts any of you have, please try to get them to me," Clinton said in response to a question on climate change.

She said there has to be a lot of creative thought as to how this can be done.

"Of course, it's true more generally than India and China, but they are going to be the 'bell cows,' if you will, you know, a lot of the developing countries will look to them," she added.

Last updated on Jul 14^th, 2009 at 19:08 pm IST--IANS