Obama looking forward to his India trip: US

Washington: US President Barack Obama is looking forward to his maiden trip to India in November, a senior administration official has said describing that the relationship between the two countries is vitally important.

"The President looks forward to his trip to India," State Department spokesman, P J Crowley, told foreign journalists at the Washington Foreign Press Center.

"As we've said many times, it is a vitally important relationship to the region and to the world," Crowley said in response to a question.

"The world's oldest democracy and largest democracy should have constructive relations, and we do. India, as an emerging global player, will be essential to solving challenges in the region, Afghanistan being one, and challenges globally, climate change, you know, being one," he said when asked about the agenda during the Obama trip to India.

A day earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that US is laying the foundation for an indispensable partnership with India, and this effort would be bolstered by Obama's November visit.

"India, the world's largest democracy, has a very large convergence of fundamental values and a broad range of both national and regional interests, and we are laying the foundation for an indispensable partnership," Clinton said in her major foreign policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think-tank.

"President Obama will use his visit in November to take our relationship to the next level," Clinton said referring to the scheduled visit of the US President to India in the first half of November.

The Secretary of State said US is also taking into account the countries that are growing rapidly and already exercising influence, like China, India, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa as well as Russia.

Deepening engagement with these emerging centres of influence is one of the major steps for the US.

At his daily news conference, Crowley said that India is an anchor of stability in the region. "We recognize that India is an anchor of stability in a critical part of the world," he said, adding that India will have to play a significant role in the global action to combat climate change.

Noting that US has an ongoing strategic dialogue with India, he said US believes earnestly that the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy have a great deal in common.

"And in fact India can be – as the Secretary (of State) said in her remarks on Friday, developing new partners who are able to assume greater responsibility for critical issues in the future," Crowley said.