To strengthen links with 'global player'

INDIA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in India Friday hoping to deepen strategic ties with an emerging player on the world stage in security, trade, arms control and climate change.

Her first stop in the country's financial and entertainment capital Mumbai, includes meetings with key business leaders, educational professionals and a women's group, as well as leading Bollywood actor Aamir Khan.

In her maiden trip to the South Asian nation as Washington's chief diplomat, Clinton will also pay tribute to the 166 people who died in last year's Islamist militant attacks on the city.

She heads to the capital New Delhi Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna before flying to Thailand to lead the US delegation at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) talks.

Clinton said this week that President Barack Obama's administration was committed to strengthening ties with India's new Congress-led government and saw the world's biggest democracy as a major regional and global player.

In a front-page article in the Times of India newspaper Friday, she praised India's recent economic success and emphasised the two countries' shared interests and values and already close ties in medicine, finance and education.

Closer cooperation was vital to tackle global security threats, nuclear proliferation and climate change, as well as opening up trade and new markets, she wrote. "I hope a new era of stronger cooperation between India and the United States will be one of the signature accomplishments of our new governments," she added. "The world has a lot riding on our cooperation."

Mumbai, Sunday, AFP