By IANS,
Mumbai: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday that the US wanted “new and promising relations” with India as she began a five-day visit to the country by mourning the victims of the Mumbai terror attack.
Clinton, who arrived here late Friday to step up economic and strategic ties between the US and India, met some of the survivors of the terrorist savagery and then described continuing global terrorism as “ruthless and nihilistic” that needed to be stopped.
Her first major engagement was meeting select Indian business leaders on issues like energy security, agriculture, global financial crisis and also climate change. She said she had “exciting and fruitful” discussions.
The meeting was organised by Tata group chairman Ratan Naval Tata. Also present were Reliance group’s Mukesh Ambani, ICICI Bank’s Chanda Kochhar, Nicholas Piramal’s Swati Piramal, Godrej group’s Adi Godrej and Mahindra and Mahindra’s Anand Mahindra.
“We have entered into new and promising era of cooperation between our two countries,” said Clinton during a brief interaction with the media later.
Clinton also said that she hoped to see a number of pacts reached between the US and India in areas ranging from energy to agriculture, including the supply of sophisticated defence equipment to the Indian armed forces.
Clinton is staying at the luxurious Taj Palace and Tower Hotel, close to the Gateway of India and one of the places terrorists from Pakistan raided and slaughtered innocent people, foreigners included.
The Secretary of State was given a tour of the now renovated hotel by Karimbir Kang, its general manager whose wife and two children were slain by terrorists as they went from room to room shooting and hurling grenades.
She said she was deeply touched to meet the staff of both the Taj and the nearby Oberoi-Triden Hotel who faced the brunt of the terrorists till they were killed by Indian commandos after about 60 hours.
“The great men and women who worked in this hotel and elsewhere in the city… (facing) senseless violence and helped save lives … they deserve our gratitude.”
Referring to Friday’s bombings in Jakarta, Clinton said it was a “painful reminder (that terrorism) is global, it is ruthless, it is nihilistic, and it must be stopped”.
Responding to a question that Pakistan was not doing enough against terrorists pitted against India, Clinton underlined that Islamabad needed to “root out” such outfits.
“We believe they have to be rooted out, they must be defeated, they must be dismantled. We say that clearly, we will continue to do so.”
She added that the US saw “a much greater effort and commitment … to take on the terrorists” in Pakistan. “In the next few days, there will be greater awareness whether or not to bring the Mumbai terrorists to justice.”
Clinton spoke effusively about India. “We are entering a new and even more promising relations with India. We are looking … to broaden and deepen our relationship.”
She denied that Washington had put pressure on Islamabad and New Delhi to get to the negotiating table, saying the US was “supportive” of their talks but was not “directly involved”.
On climate change, she said there was no contradiction between poverty eradication and moving towards a low-carbon economy.
“We acknowledge that we’ve made mistakes and we, along with other developed countries, are responsible” for global warming. “We are hoping that a great country like India will not make the same mistakes.”
Clinton hoped that India would leapfrog the dirty technologies that are leading to climate change “just as it has leapfrogged from having few phones to now having more than 500 million, mostly cellphones.”
Later Saturday, Clinton will visit the marketing headquarters here of the NGO Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which empowers poor women.
She then goes to St. Xaviers’ College for a meeting with students and teachers and representatives of some NGOs. Bollywood actor Aamir Khan will be present there.
Clinton will Sunday fly to New Delhi where she will meet Indian leaders for discussions on issues including economic growth, climate change, education, health care, non-proliferation and counter-terrorism.