Those involved in preparing Clinton's visit claim that the visit itself is important and meant to deepen and broaden the Indo-US bilateral relations. The focus is more on bilateral ties. Obviously, the thrust of the talks are going to be widening the political, economic, trade and cultural relations. As the new US pointsman for South Asia in the State department Robert Blake said recently, Hillary's visit itself will be a tangible manifestation of Obama administration's commitment to take the Indo-US ties to the next level.

The ground work had already been prepared by the recent visits of the US National Security Adviser James L. Jones and her deputy William Burns. In fact from the time Obama took over, there had been continuous high level visits with CIA chief Leon Panetta and Obama's Special envoy for Afghanistan Richard Holbrook and the US Army chief. They had had interaction at the highest level in India when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made some plain speaking to them about the dangers India apprehends from the neighbourhood, particularly from Pakistan.

Two major issues are on Hillary's agenda. Resumption of Indo - Pak dialogue and taking forward the Nuclear deal. The Obama administration is keen that India and Pakistan should resume the composite dialogue process which was broken after the 26/11 terror attacks. This is the basic thrust of their Indo- Pak policy although the US had stopped hyphenating the two countries and is adopting different approach to each of them.

New Delhi also has two major issues — terrorism from Pakistan and next steps on nuclear deal.

The resumption of dialogue is important to Obama because the US wants Pakistan to divert their military forces from the eastern border in Kashmir to Its Western border to deal with the regrouped Taliban elements and also Al Qaeda. Pakistan insists that this could be done only when the Kashmir problem got resolved. The US thinks that once the dialogue is kept going, the tension between the two countries would reduce automatically.

On the prompting of the US, Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had their first meeting since 26/11 in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in June. Simultaneously due to tremendous pressure form the US there is visible change of stand by the Pakistani leaders. The talks between the two foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan this month may pave the way for taking it further.

In this scenario Hillary Clinton's visit is crucial. What are Clinton's benchmarks in the Indo-US ties? She had talked of four platforms of cooperation — global security, human development, economic activity and science and technology. The two sides are comfortable on these issues.

Hillary has created the atmosphere by making the right noises in various meetings recently. She told journalists 'We are working hard with our Indian counterparts to create a very deep and broad strategic engagement and it is my hope that we will be able to announce our intentions when I am in India.' At the Indo-US business council meeting last month, she talked of upgrading Indo-US relations in a dramatic way.

Clinton's agenda also includes counter terrorism strategy and sharing information with India and other allies. She would urge India along with the US to support Pakistan government's efforts to deal with the terrorists.

As for the Indo-US nuclear deal, the G- 8 declaration to ban transfer of ENR items to countries, which are not signatories of the NPT, is a new issue which has to be clarified at her level. Doubts in this regard have to be cleared as India is one of the four countries which have not signed the NPT. Deepening of trade and economic ties are other important issues. Indian investments in the US are growing amounting to $105 billion this year. The human resources contribution to the US is also on the increase with more doctors, nurses, engineers and IT professionals working in the US.

Hillary herself has listed climate change, Afghanistan and science as areas of cooperation between India and the US. New Delhi should take this opportunity to convey to Clinton India's concern about the recent US aid package to Pakistan and also the need to contain the terrorist attacks coming to India from Pakistan.

Hillary's visit is to pave way for Singh's next meeting with Obama in September. The US President had renewed his invitation to Singh recently. Ultimately, if all goes well, it may end up with Obama visiting India next year. (IPA Service)