Hillary Clinton arrives in India July 17

The contours of "an enhanced US-India strategic partnership" offering solutions to the challenges of 21st century will top US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's agenda on her five day visit starting Friday.

Clinton, who starts her first visit to India as America's chief diplomat in Mumbai July 17, will meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, other government officials, the leader of the opposition, entrepreneurs, scientists, and youth, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday.

With Krishna, she "will discuss the structure and elements of an enhanced US-India strategic partnership that will enable us to advance solutions to the defining challenges of our time and to enhance global prosperity and stability in the 21st century," he told reporters.

In Mumbai, she will meet with a broad cross section of Indian society and will remember the victims of the Nov 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks before travelling to New Delhi July 19. Clinton leaves for Thailand July 21.

Kelly, who will be part of the US team, said Clinton had no plans of stopping by or visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan during her trip. "I'm sure that she will visit Afghanistan and Pakistan, but not on this visit. It's just to India and Thailand," he said.

Clinton had given the first broad exposition of Washington's agenda for India at the US-India Business Council's (USIBC) Synergies Summit here last month with a pledge to build what she called the "US-India 3.0" relationship representing the next stage in their evolving ties.

Calling India one of the few nations the new Obama administration saw as a global partner, she had vowed to usher in a new era of relations with India with a "dramatic expansion in our common agenda and a greater role for India, in solving global challenges."

"We see India as one of a few key partners worldwide who will help us shape the 21st century," she declared

"It is early in our new administration, and we are clearly committed to furthering and deepening our relationship with India in every way possible," she said as if addressing critics who have suggested that unlike the previous Bush administration, President Barack Obama was ignoring New Delhi.

Noting that three successive United States administrations from different parties - Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama - have identified the US-India relationship as a foreign policy priority, she said: "To the United States, this is a project that transcends partnerships and personalities. And I believe the same is true in India."

Since then, Clinton has time and again dilated on the theme of a "strategic partnership" with India. At a Town Hall meeting Monday at the US Agency for International Development, she said her trip to India is intended to start a strategic dialogue on a wide range of issues including climate change and clean energy.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

Last updated on Jul 15^th, 2009 at 09:28 am IST--IANS